TY - CONF A1 - Deresse, N. E. A1 - Thiele, Marc A1 - Pirskawetz, Stephan A1 - Sarem, M. A1 - Francois, St. A1 - Verstrynge, E. T1 - Evaluation of Concrete Fatigue Damage with Elastic Wave-based Measurement Techniques N2 - The fatigue damage evolution and the fatigue life of quasi-brittle materials such as concrete are not yet completely understood. Accordingly to get better insights, researchers have recently been incorporating advanced measuring techniques in their fatigue experiments. In this research, acoustic emission techniques (AET), active ultrasonic, and deformation measurements are used to track the damage evolution of concrete samples subjected to fatigue loading. The samples are subjected to constant amplitude and stepwise fatigue loading in Brazilian splitting test set-ups. Initially, a good agreement is observed between the deformation and the ultrasonic measurements in capturing the crack propagation during Brazilian splitting tests. The three fatigue damage phases could be identified with all of the three techniques. The Phase II damage rates quantified by deformation measurements and AET in stepwise fatigue tests were used to predict the number of cycles to failure at various stress levels. The predictions were validated using the number of cycles to failure of the constant amplitude fatigue tests. T2 - 36th Conference of the European Working Group on Acoustic Emission CY - Potsdam, Germany DA - 18.09.2024 KW - Concrete KW - Acoustic emission KW - Ultrasonic testing KW - Fatigue PY - 2024 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-615677 DO - https://doi.org/10.58286/30228 SN - 1435-4934 VL - 29 IS - 10 SP - 1 EP - 10 PB - NDT.net AN - OPUS4-61567 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Eichner, Lukas T1 - LUKAS’ JACKET: A test structure for model and monitoring based lifetime management of offshore jacket support structures N2 - The goal of the experiments is to demonstrate that systems like three-dimensional jackets possess redundancies that, despite the reduced fatigue life of individual components, enable reliable operation if an appropriate maintenance concept is in place. In practice, individual potentially faulty components in the structure have been handled conservatively so far. To move away from this approach, methods and strategies in the field of life cycle management that enable economically optimal and reliable operation must be transferred from scientific research to practice. Experiments are the preferred method to establish the proof of concept. To realistically simulate the operational lifetime of a jacket structure through an experiment, cyclic loads must be applied to the structure to replicate typical fatigue processes. To ensure that the test structure is not a "disposable product" and can undergo multiple test cycles, the experimental concept includes system-level and component-level tests. The latter are conducted on removable joints. These elements at the nodes of the structure have been manufactured in multiple variations, both to potentially contain mentioned flaws and to undergo more load cycles individually than the main structure. Once the removable joint is sufficiently pre-damaged and thus the reduced remaining fatigue life is established, the element is inserted into the overall structure. The defined maintenance strategy is then implemented on the entire system. This strategy consists of structural health monitoring (SHM), inspections, and repairs. At defined intervals, cyclic loading is interrupted to apply dynamic loads. Using the installed monitoring system and coupled operational modal analysis (OMA), the modal parameters of the structure are determined, which can help identify potential system damage. Optimal sensor placement (OSP) can be determined based on a maximum value of information (VoI) across the entire pre-posterior predicted service life. For detailed investigations at the hotspots, inspections are conducted using non-destructive methods, among others. Overall global and local information about the structure's condition is gathered these methods, which are then incorporated into models describing the structure through Bayesian updating. This allows for initial system identification based on different system responses and later updating of the predicted parameters of analytical and numerical models. Utilizing the updated models, decisions regarding maintenance actions, such as further inspections or repairs, are made, which are subject to uncertainties. The probabilistic models enable a reliability- and risk-based maintenance strategy, where, for example, maximum failure rates can act as triggers for maintenance actions. These decisions are relevant for the planned duration of the simulated operational lifetime, as well as for potential lifetime extensions, which are currently of significant importance in practice. Optimizing the maintenance strategy for the operational lifetime of the structures with these methods will lead to a higher utility of the offshore wind farm. The work associated with the test structure encompasses a variety of topics (including fatigue, damage detection and identification, reliability, Bayesian updating, system identification, SHM, maintenance planning, decisions under uncertainties), which are integrated through corresponding models and methods. All these models have been and are being applied in the numerical accompaniment of the experiments. By applying them to a structure that includes the relevant locations and aspects of real-world structures, both well-functioning and suboptimal parts of the established framework will be revealed. T2 - 20th EAWE PhD Seminar on Wind Energy CY - Visby, Sweden DA - 23.09.2024 KW - Offshore Jacket Support Structure KW - Test Structure KW - Fatigue KW - Lifetime Management KW - Structural Health Monitoring PY - 2024 AN - OPUS4-61146 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Hille, Falk A1 - Sowietzki, D. A1 - Makris, R. T1 - Luminescence-based early detection of fatigue cracks N2 - Classic non-destructive fatigue crack detection methods reveal the state of the fatigue damage evolution at the moment of application, generally not under operational conditions. The here introduced crack luminescence method realizes a clear visibility of the occurred and growing crack in loaded components during operation. Different established experiments show that due to the sensitive coating a crack Formation can be detected even in early stage under the premise the crack reached the surface. The coating consists of two layers with different properties and functions. The bottom layer emits light as fluorescence under UV radiation. The top layer covers the fluorescing one and prevents the emitting of light in case of no damage at the surface. In case of surface crack occurrence, the luminescent light is clearly noticeable by visual observations and also by standard camera equipment which makes automated crack detection possible as well. It is expected that crack luminescence can increase structural safety as well as reduce costs and time for inspections and preventive maintenance. KW - Coating KW - Fatigue KW - Crack damage detection KW - Luminescence PY - 2020 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-510517 DO - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matpr.2020.02.338 SN - 2214-7853 SP - 1 EP - 5 PB - Elsevier CY - Amsterdam AN - OPUS4-51051 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Ratkovac, Mirjana A1 - Gerards-Wünsche, Paul A1 - Thiele, Marc A1 - Brackrock, Daniel A1 - Stamm, Michael T1 - Detection and monitoring of the fatigue crack growth on welds – Application-oriented use of NDT methods N2 - Early detection of fatigue cracks and accurate measurements of the crack growth play an important role in the maintenance and repair strategies of steel structures exposed to cyclic loads during their service life. Observation of welded connections is especially of high relevance due to their higher susceptibility to fatigue damage. The aim of this contribution was to monitor fatigue crack growth in thick welded specimens during fatigue tests as holistically as possible, by implementing multiple NDT methods simultaneously in order to record the crack initiation and propagation until the final fracture. In addition to well-known methods such as strain gauges, thermography, and ultrasound, the crack luminescence method developed at the Bundesanstalt für Materialforschung und -prüfung (BAM), which makes cracks on the surface particularly visible, was also used. For data acquisition, a first data fusion concept was developed and applied in order to synchronize the data of the different methods and to evaluate them to a large extent automatically. The resulting database can ultimately also be used to access, view, and analyze the experimental data for various NDT methods. During the conducted fatigue tests, the simultaneous measurements of the same cracking process enabled a comprehensive comparison of the methods, highlighting their individual strengths and limitations. More importantly, they showed how a synergetic combination of different NDT methods can be beneficial for implementation in large-scale fatigue testing but also in monitoring and inspection programs of in-service structures - such as the support structures of offshore wind turbines. T2 - Fatigue Design 2023 (FatDes 2023) CY - Senlis, France DA - 29.11.2023 KW - Fatigue KW - Welded KW - NDT KW - Crack growth PY - 2024 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-600238 DO - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.prostr.2024.03.062 VL - 57 SP - 560 EP - 568 PB - Elsevier B.V. AN - OPUS4-60023 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Schneider, Ronald T1 - Vibration-based system identification of a large steel box girder bridge N2 - The Bundesanstalt für Materialforschung und -prüfung (BAM) collaborates with TNO to develop a software framework for automated calibration of structural models based on monitoring data. The ultimate goal is to include such models in the asset management process of engineering structures. As a basis for developing the framework, a multi-span road bridge consisting of ten simply supported steel box girders was selected as a test case. Our group measured output-only vibration data from one box girder under ambient conditions. From the data, we determined eigenfrequencies and mode shapes. In parallel, we developed a preliminary structural model of the box girder for the purpose of predicting its modal properties. In this contribution, we provide an overview of the measurement campaign, the operational modal analysis, the structural modeling and qualitatively compare the identified with the predicted modes. As an outlook, we discuss the further steps in the calibration process and future applications of the calibrated model. T2 - XII International Conference on Structural Dynamics (EURODYN 2023) CY - Delft, Netherlands DA - 02.07.2023 KW - Bridge KW - Safety KW - Fatigue KW - Modal system identification KW - Model updating PY - 2023 AN - OPUS4-57863 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Thibaux, Philippe A1 - Thiele, Marc A1 - Van Wittenberghe, Jeroen A1 - Baeßler, Matthias T1 - Comparison of resonance and hydraulic testing on large scale fatigue tests of welded tubular joints for offshore wind turbine foundations N2 - Jackets structures as foundations for offshore wind energy converters are efficient solutions. But these structures require the welding of a large number of joints. The design of the Jacket structures is typically driven by fatigue. Therefore, consequently the fatigue strength of the joints is a primary parameter for an optimized design. The present paper investigates if tubular joints produced by manual welding using the current techniques have an improved performance compared to the relevant standards that are applied for the design of the foundations. To investigate this, 4 full-scale tests in geometry representative of a structure were performed, 2 using a resonance method and 2 using a three-point bending method with hydraulic actuators. The results are similar, with cracks initiated early and extending extensively before failure. The results are very close to the current T-curve from DNV RP-C203 applied for tubular joints. KW - Fatigue KW - Tubular joints KW - Resonance testing KW - Steel welds PY - 2025 DO - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijfatigue.2024.108797 SN - 0142-1123 VL - 193 SP - 1 EP - 16 PB - Elsevier Ltd. AN - OPUS4-62373 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Thibaux, Philippe A1 - Van Wittenberghe, Jeroen A1 - Fricke, Wolfgang A1 - Thiele, Marc A1 - Nielsen, Lars Peter A1 - Conti, Fabien T1 - Results of the JaCo project: fatigue strength of robot‑welded tubular joints for offshore wind energy converters N2 - Jacket foundations requires the welding of a large number of tubular joints. These foundations type is suitable to support wind energy converters in deeper water. In order to increase the production speed and its quality, robot systems were developed to produce tubular joints. Since fatigue is dominating the design of these structures, an assessment of the performance of tubular joints produced by robots was performed and compared with the performance of manually welded joints. 18 large-scale tests were performed on joints with dimensions representative for offshore structures, which were produced in industrial environment. Breakthrough cracks occurred through the chord, with cracks initiated at the weld toe, although in some cases cracks were also initiated between weld beads. The measured fatigue strengths of joints produced by robot were similar or higher than the T-curve of DNV-RP-C203. Some delivered components showed fatigue strength that was more than 20% higher than the standard curve. These results emphasize that mastering the welding process with robots is necessary to achieve superior levels of fatigue strength. KW - Fatigue KW - Tubular joint KW - Robot welding KW - Hot spot method KW - Large-scale testing PY - 2024 DO - https://doi.org/10.1007/s40194-024-01903-5 SN - 1878-6669 SP - 1 EP - 14 PB - Springer CY - Berlin ; Heidelberg AN - OPUS4-62319 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Thiele, Marc T1 - Detection and monitoring of the fatigue crack growth on welds – Application-oriented use of NDT methods N2 - Early detection of fatigue cracks and accurate measurements of the crack growth play an important role in the maintenance and repair strategies of steel structures exposed to cyclic loads during their service life. Observation of welded connections is especially of high relevance due to their higher susceptibility to fatigue damage. The aim of this contribution was to monitor fatigue crack growth in thick welded specimens during fatigue tests as holistically as possible, by implementing multiple NDT methods simultaneously in order to record the crack initiation and propagation until the final fracture. In addition to well-known methods such as strain gauges, thermography, and ultrasound, the crack luminescence method developed at the Bundesanstalt für Materialforschung und -prüfung (BAM), which makes cracks on the surface particularly visible, was also used. For data acquisition, a first data fusion concept was developed and applied in order to synchronize the data of the different methods and to evaluate them to a large extent automatically. The resulting database can ultimately also be used to access, view, and analyze the experimental data for various NDT methods. During the conducted fatigue tests, the simultaneous measurements of the same cracking process enabled a comprehensive comparison of the methods, highlighting their individual strengths and limitations. More importantly, they showed how a synergetic combination of different NDT methods can be beneficial for implementation in large-scale fatigue testing but also in monitoring and inspection programs of in-service structures - such as the support structures of offshore wind turbines. T2 - Fatigue Design 2023 CY - Senlis, France DA - 29.11.2023 KW - Crack growth KW - Fatigue KW - NDT KW - Welded PY - 2023 AN - OPUS4-62374 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Thiele, Marc T1 - Fatigue crack detection methods for high-cyclic loaded steel structures and challenges in mechanical testing N2 - For the generation of renewable energy offshore wind farms play an important role. The majority of these wind generators are connected to steel foundation structures. Steady increasing power output of these wind turbines leads to new challenges as well for engineers of the related support structures. Caused by the high-cyclic loading of these structures by wind and waves fatigue plays a very important role. Besides the consideration of fatigue within the design process it is additionally an important topic and challenge to monitor the existing steel structures relating to potential fatigue cracks occurring during their lifetime. This plays a role for a fundamental understanding of mechanisms as investigated in testing but also for inspection in real structures. Since the structures of the offshore wind generators are very large and in addition partially under water effective and reliable methods for fatigue crack detection are required. This contribution will present results of recent investigations on different crack detection methods applied on high-cycle fatigue tests on small welded steel samples as well as on welded steel components. The comparison of these measurements will show what are the advantages and disadvantages of the different methods and which method is potentially more suitable for the application on real offshore wind structures. It is outlined where challenges for detection methods exist. Furthermore, in this context the resulting challenges for the execution of material testing especially caused by the increasing dimensions of wind energy converters will by exemplarily presented. T2 - EERA JP Wind & SETWind Online Annual Event 2020 CY - Online meeting DA - 14.09.2020 KW - Fatigue KW - Crack detection KW - Steel structures PY - 2020 AN - OPUS4-51356 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Thiele, Marc A1 - Pirskawetz, Stephan T1 - Analysis of damage evolution in concrete under fatigue loading by acoustic emission and ultrasonic testing N2 - The fatigue process of concrete under compressive cyclic loading is still not completely explored. The corresponding damage processes within the material structure are especially not entirely investigated. The application of acoustic measurement methods enables a better insight into the processes of the fatigue in concrete. Normal strength concrete was investigated under compressive cyclic loading with regard to the fatigue process by using acoustic methods in combination with other nondestructive measurement methods. Acoustic emission and ultrasonic signal measurements were applied together with measurements of strains, elastic modulus, and static strength. It was possible to determine the anisotropic character of the fatigue damage caused by uniaxial loading based on the ultrasonic measurements. Furthermore, it was observed that the fatigue damage seems to consist not exclusively of load parallel oriented crack structures. Rather, crack structures perpendicular to the load as well as local compacting are likely components of the fatigue damage. Additionally, the ultrasonic velocity appears to be a good indicator for fatigue damage beside the elastic modulus. It can be concluded that acoustic methods allow an observation of the fatigue process in concrete and a better understanding, especially in combination with further measurement methods. KW - Concrete KW - Fatigue KW - Damage evolution KW - Ultrasonic testing KW - Acoustic emission PY - 2022 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-541891 DO - https://doi.org/10.3390/ma15010341 SN - 1996-1944 VL - 15 IS - 1 SP - 341 EP - 355 PB - MDPI CY - Basel AN - OPUS4-54189 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER -