TY - CONF A1 - Epple, Niklas A1 - Niederleithinger, Ernst A1 - Fontoura Barroso, Daniel T1 - Coda Wave Interferometry for Monitoring Bridges with Embedded Ultrasonic Transducers – Lessons Learned at the Gänstorbrücke Bridge Ulm, Germany N2 - Ultrasonic Coda Wave interferometry has the potential to detect minute changes in scattering materials like concrete. By permanently installing ultrasonic transducers in concrete, DFG Research unit CoDA aims to develop methods for concrete damage assessment in Germany's aging infrastructure. To test the methods developed in simulations and laboratory experiments on a large scale, we have implemented several ultrasonic transducers at the Gänstorbrücke Ulm, one of Germany's most monitored road bridges. Since fall 2020 we are monitoring parts of the center of the Bridge, as well as an abutment, and compare the results to the commercial monitoring system. All data is recorded with a self-made data collection device, the so-called W-Box, and analyzed with different coda wave-based algorithms to detect signal and volumetric velocity changes. The long-term measurements show that the influence of temperature changes on strains and therefore ultrasound velocity changes calculated with coda waves can be monitored. The capabilities and limitations of the coda wave-based monitoring system are tested in a controlled experiment. Static loading using a truck with varying loads at several positions allows the calibration of the system to improve the detectability of possibly damaging loads and changes induced by this loading. A map of velocity change analyzing data from this load experiment shows that the influence of load on the material and strain distribution can be detected with array measurements. T2 - NDT-CE 2022 - The International Symposium on Nondestructive Testing in Civil Engineering CY - Zurich, Switzerland DA - 16.08.2022 KW - Coda Wave Interferometry KW - Ultrasound KW - Embedded sensors KW - Bridge Monitoring KW - Load Experiment PY - 2022 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-564531 SP - 1 EP - 8 AN - OPUS4-56453 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Rabe, U. A1 - Pudovikov, S. A1 - Herrmann, H.-G. A1 - Wiggenhauser, H. A1 - Prabhakara, Prathik A1 - Niederleithinger, Ernst T1 - Evaluation of retroreflective corner echo for detection of surface breaking cracks in concrete by ultrasound N2 - The retroreflective corner echo is used, for example, in ultrasonic non-destructive testing of metals to find fatigue cracks in tubes or shafts. If the much weaker crack tip signal is additionally detected, the crack length can also be determined. A corner reflection occurs in cases of surface breaking cracks with predominantly perpendicular orientation to the surface. The intensity of the corner reflection depends on the angle of incidence and on the ultrasonic wave mode used. For the reliable detection of vertical surface breaking cracks in metals, transversal waves are commonly used, which propagate at an angle of 37° to 53° to the inspection surface. As shown in this contribution, the wide spread low frequency ultrasonic arrays with dry point contact sources available for ultrasonic testing of concrete also allow to receive corner echoes. These devices generate transversal waves in concrete structures with a large divergence of the sound field. A series of experiments was carried out with such dry point contact arrays on concrete specimens with artificial test defects and controlled induced cracks of different depths. The ultrasonic time-of-flight signals were recorded, exported and reconstructed utilising the SAFT (Synthetic Aperture Focusing Technique) algorithm. The SAFT reconstruction parameters were adjusted to visualize the corner echo indication. As will be shown, with this targeted processing, the reproducible detection of surface breaking cracks in concrete is possible. The retroreflective corner echo can thus be exploited in civil engineering for non-destructive inspection of concrete. T2 - NDT-CE 2022 CY - Zurich, Switzerland DA - 16.08.2022 KW - Concrete KW - Crack depth KW - Ultrasound KW - SAFT PY - 2022 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-563365 UR - https://www.ndt.net/article/ndtce2022/paper/27256_manuscript.pdf IS - 27256 SP - 1 EP - 4 PB - NDT.net AN - OPUS4-56336 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Landis, E. A1 - Hassefras, Emiel A1 - Oesch, Tyler A1 - Niederleithinger, Ernst T1 - A Microstructural Basis for Diffuse Ultrasound in Concrete N2 - Attenuation of ultrasonic signals in concrete has the potential to carry much information about the microstructure of the material. In this work a series of concrete specimens of varying porosities and pore size distributions were internally imaged with x-ray computed tomography (CT), and then subsequently examined with throughtransmission ultrasound. The CT images were used to quantify both capillary porosity of cement paste as well as internal interfaces that are likely to produce elastic wave scattering. Ultrasound signals were represented as a diffusion process such that absorption and scattering attenuation could be isolated. As implemented, the diffusion model was a poor predictor of capillary porosity, while diffusivity was a reasonable predictor of scattering interfaces. Diffusivity was found to scale extremely well with small scale porosity, which made it a good predictor of compressive strength. T2 - NDT-CE 2022 CY - Zurich, Switzerland DA - 16.08.2022 KW - Concrete KW - X-ray tomography KW - Ultrasound PY - 2022 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-563371 UR - https://www.ndt.net/article/ndtce2022/paper/61592_manuscript.pdf SP - 1 EP - 4 PB - NDT.net AN - OPUS4-56337 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Grohmann, Maria A1 - Niederleithinger, Ernst A1 - Buske, S. A1 - Büttner, C. T1 - Application of Elastic P-SV Reverse Time Migration to Synthetic Ultrasonic Echo Data from Concrete Members N2 - The ultrasonic echo technique is frequently used in non-destructive testing (NDT) of concrete structures for thickness measurements, geometry determinations as well as localization of built-in components. To improve ultrasonic imaging of complex structures in concrete, we transferred a geophysical imaging technique, the reverse time migration (RTM), to NDT in civil engineering. In contrast to the conventionally used synthetic aperture focusing technique (SAFT) algorithms, RTM is a wavefield continuation method in time and uses the full wave equation. Thus, RTM can handle complicated wave propagations in any direction without dip limitation. In this paper, we focused on the application and evaluation of a two-dimensional (2D) elastic RTM algorithm considering compressional waves, vertically polarized shear waves, and Rayleigh waves. We tested the elastic RTM routine on synthetic ultrasonic echo data generated with a 2D concrete model consisting of several steps and circular air inclusions. As these complex structures can often be found in real-world NDT use cases, their imaging is especially important. By using elastic RTM, we were able to clearly reproduce vertical reflectors and lower edges of circular air voids inside our numerical concrete model. Such structures cannot be imaged with conventional SAFT algorithms. Furthermore, the used elastic RTM approach also yielded a better reconstruction of a horizontal reflector and upper boundaries of circular air inclusions. Our encouraging results demonstrate that elastic RTM has the potential to significantly improve the imaging of complex concrete structures and, thus, is a step forward for detailed, high-quality ultrasonic NDT in civil engineering. KW - Concrete KW - Ultrasound KW - Imaging KW - Reverse time migration KW - Elastic PY - 2023 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-580680 DO - https://doi.org/10.1007/s10921-023-00962-w SN - 0195-9298 VL - 42 IS - 3 SP - 1 EP - 18 PB - Springer Nature AN - OPUS4-58068 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Rabe, U. A1 - Pudovikov, S. A1 - Herrmann, H.-G. A1 - Wiggenhauser, H. A1 - Prabhakara, Prathik A1 - Niederleithinger, Ernst T1 - Using the Corner Reflection for Depth Evaluation of Surface Breaking Cracks in Concrete by Ultrasound N2 - The corner echo is a well-known effect in ultrasonic testing, which allows detection of surface breaking cracks with predominantly perpendicular orientation to the surface as, for example, corrosion cracks in metal pipes or shafts. This echo is formed by two planes, the surface of the crack and the surface which the crack breaks. It can also be classified as a half-skip method, since a reflection of the pulse occurs on the backwall before the reflection at the defect takes place. In combination with the diffraction from the crack tip, the corner echo also allows crack sizing. As shown in this paper, the corner reflection can be used in civil engineering for nondestructive inspection of concrete. Commercially available low frequency ultrasonic arrays with dry point contact sources generate SH transversal waves with sufficient divergence of the sound field in order to detect corner reflections. Ultrasonic line-scans and area-scans were acquired with a linear array on flat concrete specimens, and the data were reconstructed by the Synthetic aperture focusing technique. If the angles and the area of reconstruction are chosen accordingly, the corner echo reflection can be distinguished from other ultrasonic information. The corner echo can thus be used as a method for deciding whether a crack is a partial-depth crack or a full-depth crack and thus for obtaining a statement about crack depth. This paper presents corresponding experimental results obtained on concrete specimens with artificial test defects and cracks induced under controlled conditions. KW - Ultrasound KW - Crack depth KW - Concrete KW - Corner echo PY - 2023 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-574631 DO - https://doi.org/10.1007/s10921-023-00956-8 SN - 0195-9298 VL - 42 IS - 2 SP - 1 EP - 19 PB - Springer Nature AN - OPUS4-57463 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Maack, Stefan A1 - Küttenbaum, Stefan A1 - Bühling, Benjamin A1 - Borchardt-Giers, Kerstin A1 - Aßmann, Norman A1 - Niederleithinger, Ernst T1 - Low frequency ultrasonic pulse-echo datasets for object detection and thickness measurement in concrete specimens as testing tasks in civil engineering N2 - The dataset contains raw data gathered with the ultrasonic pulse-echo method on concrete specimens. The surfaces of the measuring objects were automatically scanned point by point. Pulse-echo measurements were performed at each of these measuring points. The test specimens represent two typical testing tasks in construction industry: the detection of objects and the determination of dimensions to describe the geometry of components. By automating the measurement process, the different test scenarios are examined with a high repeatability, precision and measuring point density. Longitu- dinal and transversal waves were used and the geometrical aperture of the testing system was varied. The low-frequency probes operate in a range of up to approximately 150 kHz. In addition to the specification of the geometrical dimensions of the individual probes, the directivity pattern and the sound field characteristics are provided. The raw data are stored in a universally readable format. The length of each time signal (A-scan) is two milliseconds and the sampling rate is two mega-samples per second. The provided data can be used for comparative studies in signal analysis, imag- ing and interpretation as well as for evaluation pur- poses in different, practically relevant testing scenarios. KW - Validation KW - Puls-echo method KW - Ultrasonic KW - Non-destructive testing KW - SAFT KW - Reconstruction algorithm PY - 2023 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-575185 DO - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dib.2023.109233 SN - 2352-3409 VL - 48 SP - 1 EP - 16 PB - Elsevier Inc. AN - OPUS4-57518 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Prabhakara, Prathik A1 - Lay, Vera A1 - Mielentz, Frank A1 - Niederleithinger, Ernst A1 - Behrens, Matthias T1 - Enhancing the Performance of a Large Aperture Ultrasound System (LAUS): A Combined Approach of Simulation and Measurement for Transmitter–Receiver Optimization N2 - The Large Aperture Ultrasound System (LAUS) developed at BAM is known for its ability to penetrate thick objects, especially concrete structures commonly used in nuclear waste storage and other applications in civil engineering. Although the current system effectively penetrates up to ~9 m, further optimization is imperative to enhance the safety and integrity of disposal structures for radioactive or toxic waste. This study focuses on enhancing the system’s efficiency by optimizing the transducer spacing, ensuring that resolution is not compromised. An array of twelve horizontal shear wave transducers was used to find a balance between penetration depth and resolution. Systematic adjustments of the spacing between transmitter and receiver units were undertaken based on target depth ranges of known reflectors at depth ranges from 5 m to 10 m. The trade-offs between resolution and artifact generation were meticulously assessed. This comprehensive study employs a dual approach using both simulations and measurements to investigate the performance of transducer units spaced at 10 cm, 20 cm, 30 cm, and 40 cm. We found that for depths up to 5 m, a spacing of 10 cm for LAUS transducer units provided the best resolution as confirmed by both simulations and measurements. This optimal distance is particularly effective in achieving clear reflections and a satisfactory signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) in imaging scenarios with materials such as thick concrete structures. However, when targeting depths greater than 10 m, we recommend increasing the distance between the transducers to 20 cm. This increased spacing improves the SNR in comparison to other spacings, as seen in the simulation of a 10 m deep backwall. Our results emphasize the critical role of transducer spacing in achieving the desired SNR and resolution, especially in the context of depth imaging requirements for LAUS applications. In addition to the transducer spacing, different distances between individual sets of measurement positions were tested. Overall, keeping the minimal possible distance between measurement position offsets provides the best imaging results at greater depths. The proposed optimizations for the LAUS in this study are primarily relevant to applications on massive nuclear structures for nuclear waste management. This research highlights the need for better LAUS efficiency in applications such as sealing structures, laying the foundation for future technological advances in this field. KW - Engineered barrier system KW - Phased array technique KW - Ultrasonic testing KW - Non-destructive testing in civil engineering KW - Seismic migration PY - 2024 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-592426 DO - https://doi.org/10.3390/s24010100 VL - 24 IS - 1 SP - 1 EP - 23 PB - MDPI CY - Basel, Switzerland AN - OPUS4-59242 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Grohmann, Maria A1 - Niederleithinger, Ernst A1 - Maack, Stefan A1 - Buske, Stefan T1 - Application of iterative elastic SH reverse time migration to synthetic ultrasonic echo data N2 - The ultrasonic echo technique is widely used in non-destructive testing (NDT) of concrete objects for thickness measurements, geometry determinations and localization of built-in components. To improve ultrasonic imaging of complex concrete structures, we transferred a seismic imaging technique, the Reverse Time Migration (RTM), to NDT in civil engineering. RTM, in contrast to the conventionally used synthetic aperture focusing technique (SAFT) algorithms, considers all wavefield types and thus, can handle complex wave propagations in any direction with no limit on velocity variations and reflector dip. In this paper, we focused on the development, application and evaluation of a two-dimensional elastic RTM algorithm considering horizontally polarized shear (SH) waves only. We applied the elastic SH RTM routine to synthetic ultrasonic echo SH-wave data generated with a concrete model incorporating several steps and circular cavities. As these features can often be found in real-world NDT use cases, their imaging is extremely important. By using elastic SH RTM, we were able to clearly reproduce almost all reflectors inside the concrete model including the vertical step edges and the cross sections of the cavities.We were also capable to show that more features could be mapped compared to SAFT, and that imaging of complex reflectors could be sharpened compared to elastic P-SV (compressional-vertically polarized shear) RTM. Our promising results illustrate that elastic SH RTM has the potential to significantly enhance the reconstruction of challenging concrete structures, representing an important step forward for precise, high-quality ultrasonic NDT in civil engineering. KW - Ultrasonic echo technique KW - Concrete structures KW - Elastic reverse time migration KW - Synthetic aperture focusing technique KW - Horizontally polarized shear waves PY - 2024 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-591716 DO - https://doi.org/10.1007/s10921-023-01010-3 SN - 1573-4862 VL - 43 SP - 1 EP - 16 PB - Springer Science and Business Media CY - Dordrecht AN - OPUS4-59171 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Timofeev, Juri A1 - Azari, H. A1 - Satyanarayana, R. T1 - Controlled Creating of Delaminations in Concrete for Nondestructive Testing N2 - Locating and sizing delaminations is a common inspection task in the maintenance and quality control of construction and rehabilitation. Their detection is an important area of application of nondestructive testing in civil engineering (NDT-CE). To improve this application, NDT test systems and test solutions must be compared, for which specimens containing well-defined delaminations are needed to serve as a reference. Currently, there are no widely accepted procedures available for creating such flaws locally and reproducibly. This study presents procedures for creating artificial delaminations repeatably and as close as possible to natural delaminations. To produce the discontinuities only substances were used which can occur in concrete components and do not affect the application of NDT-CE methods. Ultrasonic pulse-echo (UPE) was used to test the flaws in the specimens. The delaminations were created by applying expansive mortar in prepared through holes. Three specimens with two delaminations each were built and tested using UPE. KW - Concrete KW - Reference KW - Delamination KW - Test specimen KW - Non-destructive testing PY - 2024 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-595201 DO - https://doi.org/10.1007/s10921-023-01044-7 SN - 0195-9298 VL - 43 IS - 1 SP - 1 EP - 13 PB - Springer Science and Business Media LLC AN - OPUS4-59520 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Lay, Vera A1 - Effner, Ute A1 - Niederleithinger, Ernst A1 - Arendt, J. A1 - Hofmann, M. A1 - Kudla, W. T1 - Ultrasonic quality assurance at magnesia shotcrete sealing structures N2 - Engineered barriers are a key element to enable safe nuclear waste disposal. One method currently under research for their construction is magnesia concrete applied in a shotcrete procedure. In this study, the ultrasonic echo method is evaluated as a means for quality assurance. Imaging of internal structures (backwall, boreholes) and defects, such as delamination, has successfully been achieved in the shotcrete. Additionally, detailed information about the potential cause of selected reflectors are obtained by phase analysis. In several test blocks of various sizes, no consistent concrete section boundaries have been found by ultrasonic imaging, which was verified by subsequent drilling and complementary tests. An experiment with artificial defects imitating cracks, air-filled voids, and material with lower density has been challenging and shows the limitations of the current methods. Although significant defects, such as a large delamination, are reliably identified, several smaller defects are not identified. Generally, ultrasonic imaging provides a suitable base as a mean for quality assurance during and after the construction of sealing structures. However, further developments are required to enhance the reliability of the method and a full validation is still pending. Still, the method has potential to increase the safety of nuclear waste repositories. KW - Ultrasound KW - Imaging KW - Engineered barrier systems KW - Underground KW - Shotcrete PY - 2022 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-563170 DO - https://doi.org/10.3390/s22228717 SN - 1424-8220 VL - 22 IS - 22 SP - 1 EP - 16 PB - MDPI CY - Basel AN - OPUS4-56317 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Schumacher, T. A1 - Niederleithinger, Ernst T1 - Combining Passive and Active Ultrasonic Stress Wave Monitoring Techniques: Opportunities for Condition Evaluation of Concrete Structures N2 - Concrete structures are invaluable assets to a society and managing them efficiently and effectively can be supported by information gathered through structural health monitoring (SHM). In this paper, a combined approach based on passive, i.e., acoustic emission (AE), and active, i.e., ultrasonic stress wave (USW) monitoring techniques for application to concrete structures is proposed and evaluated. While AE and USW are based on the same underlying physics, i.e., wave motion in solids, they differ fundamentally with respect to the nature of the source. For the former, external stimuli such as mechanical loads or temperature cause the rapid release of energy from initially unknown locations. As a result, AE events are unique and cannot be repeated. For the latter, a known source at a known location is employed at a specified time. This approach is thus controlled and repeatable. It is argued that a combination of these two techniques has the potential to provide a more comprehensive picture of ongoing fracture processes, damage progression, as well as slowly occurring aging and degradation mechanisms. This combined approach does thus promise new opportunities to support condition assessment of concrete structures. After providing an overview and comparison of the two techniques, results, and observations from a full-scale laboratory experiment and an in-service bridge monitoring study are discussed to demonstrate the promise of the proposed combined monitoring approach. Finally, suggestions for further work are presented. T2 - NDT-CE 2022 CY - Zurich, Switzerland DA - 16.08.2022 KW - Ultrasound KW - Acoustic emission KW - Concrete structures KW - Monitoring PY - 2022 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-563242 UR - https://www.ndt.net/article/ndtce2022/paper/61607_manuscript.pdf SP - 1 EP - 11 PB - NDT.net AN - OPUS4-56324 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Feistkorn, S. A1 - Algernon, D. A1 - Arndt, R. A1 - Ebell, Gino A1 - Friese, M. A1 - Grosse, C. U. A1 - Holstein, R. A1 - Niederleithinger, Ernst A1 - Schickert, M. A1 - Schulze, S. A1 - Taffe, A. A1 - Walther, A. A1 - Wolf, J. A1 - Zoega, A. A1 - Zwanzig, M. T1 - Introduction to DIN 4871: Qualification of NDT Personnel in Civil Engineering (NDT-CE) N2 - Recently, non-destructive testing in civil engineering (NDT-CE), in particular of concrete components, has successfully mastered the leap from research to practice. Several methods have been established for field inspections to determine the concrete cover of reinforcement or to estimate the compressive strength as well as other parameters related to the concrete material. In addition, the application of nondestructive testing is indispensable, if information about the inner structure - such as the location of rebars and tendon ducts or the damage-related condition assessment to detect grouting defects, honeycombs, delamination, or corrosion - is required. Besides the selection of a suitable NDT method and an appropriate inspection system, the reliability of the results depends largely on the person who applies the non-destructive inspection technique and evaluates the inspection results. To ensure a high quality of non-destructive concrete evaluation as well as to keep the uncertainty caused by the inspection personnel to a minimum, structured, consistent and regulated theoretical as well as practical training of inspection personnel is essential. To close this gap, the subcommittee of education (UA-A) within the committee for NDT-CE of the German Society for Nondestructive Testing (DGZfP) has been reactivated in 2018 to establish uniform training standards for nondestructive concrete inspections in the long term. The subcommittee consists of scientists, practitioners, authorities, and clients. So far, the national standard DIN 4871 “Non-destructive testing - Qualification and Certification of NDT personnel in Civil Engineering (NDT-CE)” was developed and is currently under review. This standard considers the civil-industry-specifics, for example, that standards for NDT of concrete, as well as related product standards with a few exceptions, still do not exist at the moment. Within this presentation, the concept, the connection to ISO 9712 and other standards as well as an overview of the developed German standard DIN 4871 will be presented. T2 - NDT-CE 2022 CY - Zurich, Switzerland DA - 16.08.2022 KW - Non-destrucive testing KW - Civil engineering PY - 2022 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-555250 UR - https://www.ndt.net/article/ndtce2022/paper/66594_manuscript.pdf VL - 2022/09 SP - 1 EP - 12 PB - NDT.net CY - Bad Breisig AN - OPUS4-55525 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Niederleithinger, Ernst A1 - Guangliang, Y. A1 - Mahon, D. A1 - Gardner, S. T1 - Muon tomography applied to assessment of concrete structures: First experiments and simulations. N2 - Non-destructive techniques for reinforced or prestressed concrete inspection such as ultrasound or radar have found regular, successful practical application but sometimes suffer from limited resolution and accuracy, imaging artefacts or restrictions in detecting certain features. Until the 1980s X-ray transmission was used in case of special demands and showed a much better resolution than other NDT techniques. However, due to safety concerns and cost issues, this method is almost never used anymore. Muon tomography has received much attention recently. Novel detectors for cosmic muons and tomographic imaging algorithms have opened new fields of application. As a first step towards practical application in civil engineering and as a proof of concept we used an existing system to image the interior of a reference reinforced 600 kg concrete block. Even with a yet not optimized setup for this kind of investigation, the muon imaging results are at least of similar quality compared to ultrasonic and radar imaging, potentially even better. In a second step, we have performed simulations to assess the potential for a set of important testing problems such as grouting defects in tendon ducts. The next steps include the development of mobile detectors and optimizing acquisition and imaging parameters. T2 - NDT-CE 2022 CY - Zurich, Switzerland DA - 16.08.2022 KW - Muon tomography KW - Concrete KW - Inspection KW - Simulation PY - 2022 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-563224 UR - https://www.ndt.net/article/ndtce2022/paper/60943_manuscript.pdf SP - 1 EP - 8 PB - NDT.net AN - OPUS4-56322 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Lay, Vera A1 - Effner, Ute A1 - Niederleithinger, Ernst A1 - Arendt, J. A1 - Kudla, W. T1 - Ultrasonic quality assurance for underground salt shotcrete sealing structures in Teutschenthal mine, Germany N2 - Underground sealing structures are necessary to seal radioactive or toxic waste in underground repositories. A special version of MgO concrete is used in the mine in Teutschenthal and applied at a large-scale test with the aim to provide a low permeability barrier. The test structures (up to 10 m long) were created by shotcreting. Besides destructive tests, non-destructive ultrasonic measurements have been evaluated for quality assurance to monitor potential anomalies such as cracks, concrete inhomogeneities, and delamination. We show results of ultrasonic measurements with a multi-transducer system used at the front and from the side of the concrete structure. Images are obtained by synthetic aperture focusing techniques. The boundaries between concreting sections are not visible in the ultrasonic images systematically so that a successful concreting is assumed, which is confirmed by the low permeabilities observed. Several reflectors up to a depth of 1.2 m are identified and interpreted as potential damages in the concrete. Phase analysis of prominent reflectors reveal a negative impedance contrast thus indicating air filled voids, cracks or delamination. Boreholes through some of the identified reflectors are used to verify the results from ultrasonic measurements. Additionally, an experiment with incorporated artificial defects was undertaken to analyse the reliability of the applied methods. Overall, the conducted tests show the potential of ultrasonic measurements to detect critical anomalies. Despite challenges at small-scale structures (cm-order), large-scale anomalies can be identified. Consequently, implementing ultrasonic monitoring during and after the construction of concrete sealing structures has shown its potential as a tool for quality assurance, but needs further development and validation. T2 - NDT-CE 2022 CY - Zurich, Switzerland DA - 16.08.2022 KW - Ultrasound KW - Ultrasonic imaging KW - Magnesia shotcrete KW - Underground KW - Engineered barrier systems PY - 2022 UR - https://www.ndt.net/events/proceedings/topic.php?eventID=292&TopicID=27209 SP - 1 EP - 4 PB - NDT.net AN - OPUS4-55824 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Grohmann, Maria A1 - Niederleithinger, Ernst A1 - Buske, B. T1 - Application of Elastic Reverse Time Migration to Ultrasonic Echo Data in Civil Engineering N2 - To improve ultrasonic imaging of concrete structures, we transferred a seismic migration technique, the Reverse Time Migration (RTM), to non-destructive testing. A 2D elastic RTM algorithm was tested on synthetic ultrasonic echo data. Compared to the typically used synthetic aperture focusing technique (SAFT) as well as our acoustic RTM algorithm, the presented elastic RTM results show an enhancement in imaging vertical reflectors and complex features inside the 2D numerical concrete model. T2 - The International Symposium on Nondestructive Testing in Civil Engineering CY - Zurich, Switzerland DA - 16.08.2022 KW - Ultrasonic Echo Technique KW - Reverse Time Migration KW - Synthetic Aperture Focusing Technique PY - 2022 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-561147 UR - https://www.ndt.net/article/ndtce2022/paper/60699_manuscript.pdf SP - 1 EP - 6 AN - OPUS4-56114 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Abraham, O. A1 - Niederleithinger, Ernst A1 - Schmidt, F. A1 - Sörensen, J.D. A1 - Thöns, S. A1 - Chapeleau, X. A1 - Ferria, H. T1 - Infrastar Training School on Fatigue and Reliability Analysis of Structures - Training for Assessment of Risk N2 - The Infrastar training school provides lectures and hands-on training to Master and PhD students, early-stage researchers and (young) professionals on all aspects of asset management of civil infrastructures with respect to fatigue of materials. It is organized yearly since 2019 and up to 20 profiles are selected to attend the 3.5-day training. A team of 7 teachers provides insight in multi-disciplinary and intersectoral basic concepts in three core fields, ranging from the design to the dismantling of the structures (bridges and wind turbines): 1. Monitoring and auscultation, 2. Structural and action models, 3. Reliability, risk and decision analyses. Each year, a recognized expert is invited to deliver a keynote lecture to raise interest in a specific aspect of one of the fields covered. The presentation is recorded and published on the training school website. T2 - NDT-CE 2022 CY - Zurich, Switzerland DA - 16.08.2022 KW - Doctoral School KW - Multidisciplinary KW - Fatigue KW - Reliability PY - 2022 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-563253 UR - https://www.ndt.net/article/ndtce2022/paper/61021_manuscript.pdf SP - 1 EP - 3 PB - NDT.net AN - OPUS4-56325 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Kolditz, O. A1 - Jacques, D. A1 - Claret, F. A1 - Bertrand, J. A1 - Churakov, S. V. A1 - Debayle, C. A1 - Diaconu, D. A1 - Fuzik, K. A1 - Garcia, D. A1 - Graebling, N. A1 - Grambow, B. A1 - Holt, E. A1 - Idiart, A. A1 - Leira, P. A1 - Montoya, V. A1 - Niederleithinger, Ernst A1 - Olin, M. A1 - Pfingsten, W. A1 - Prasianakis, N. I. A1 - Rink, K. A1 - Sampier, J. A1 - Szöke, I. A1 - Szöke, R. A1 - Theodon, L. A1 - Wendling, J. T1 - Digitalisation for nuclear waste management: predisposal and disposal N2 - Data science (digitalisation and artificial intelligence) became more than an important facilitator for many domains in fundamental and applied sciences as well as industry and is disrupting the way of research already to a large extent. Originally, data sciences were viewed to be well-suited, especially, for data-intensive applications such as image processing, pattern recognition, etc. In the recent past, particularly, data-driven and physics-inspired machine learning methods have been developed to an extent that they accelerate numerical simulations and became directly usable for applications related to the nuclear waste management cycle. In addition to process-based approaches for creating surrogate models, other disciplines such as virtual reality methods and high-performance computing are leveraging the potential of data sciences more and more. The present challenge is utilising the best models, input data and monitoring information to integrate multi-chemical-physical, coupled processes, multi-scale and probabilistic simulations in Digital Twins (DTw) able to mirror or predict the performance of its corresponding physical twins. Therefore, the main target of the Topical Collection is exploring how the development of DTw can benefit the development of safe, efficient solutions for the pre-disposal and disposal of radioactive waste. A particular challenge for DTw in radioactive waste management is the combination of concepts from geological modelling and underground construction which will be addressed by linking structural and multi-physics/chemistry process models to building or tunnel information models. As for technical systems, engineered structures a variety of DTw approaches already exist, the development of DTw concepts for geological systems poses a particular challenge when taking the complexities (structures and processes) and uncertainties at extremely varying time and spatial scales of subsurface environments into account. KW - Data science KW - Digitalization KW - Nuclear waste KW - Disposal KW - Predisposal PY - 2023 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-569387 DO - https://doi.org/10.1007/s12665-022-10675-4 SN - 1866-6280 VL - 82 IS - 1 SP - 1 EP - 11 PB - Springer AN - OPUS4-56938 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Prabhakara, Prathik A1 - Mielentz, Frank A1 - Stolpe, Heiko A1 - Behrens, Matthias A1 - Lay, Vera A1 - Niederleithinger, Ernst T1 - Validation of novel ultrasonic phased array borehole probe by using simulation and measurement N2 - Low-frequency ultrasonic testing is a well-established non-destructive testing (NDT) method in civil engineering for material characterization and the localization of cracks, reinforcing bars and delamination. A novel ultrasonic borehole probe is developed for in situ quality assurance of sealing structures in radioactive waste repositories using existing research boreholes. The aim is to examine the sealing structures made of salt concrete for any possible cracks and delamination and to localize built-in components. A prototype has been developed using 12 individual horizontal dry point contact (DPC) shear wave transducers separated by equidistant transmitter/receiver arrays. The probe is equipped with a commercially available portable ultrasonic flaw detector used in the NDT civil engineering industry. To increase the sound pressure generated, the number of transducers in the novel probe is increased to 32 transducers. In addition, the timed excitation of each transducer directs a focused beam of sound to a specific angle and distance based on the previously calculated delay time. This narrows the sensitivity of test volume and improves the signal-to-noise ratio of the received signals. In this paper, the newly designed phased array borehole probe is validated by beam computation in the CIVA software and experimental investigations on a half-cylindrical test specimen to investigate the directional characteristics. In combination with geophysical reconstruction methods, it is expected that an optimised radiation pattern of the probe will improve the signal quality and thus increase the reliability of the imaging results. This is an important consideration for the construction of safe sealing structures for the safe disposal of radioactive or toxic waste. KW - Ultrasound KW - Phased array KW - Concrete KW - Borehole PY - 2022 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-565722 DO - https://doi.org/10.3390/s22249823 SN - 1424-8220 VL - 22 IS - 24 SP - 1 EP - 16 PB - MDPI CY - Basel AN - OPUS4-56572 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Holt, E. A1 - Oksa, M. A1 - Nieminen, M. A1 - Abdelouas, A. A1 - Banford, A. A1 - Fournier, M. A1 - Mennecart, T. A1 - Niederleithinger, Ernst T1 - Predisposal conditioning, treatment, and performance assessment of radioactive waste streams N2 - Before the final disposal of radioactive wastes, various processes can be implemented to optimise the waste form. This can include different chemical and physical treatments, such as thermal treatment for waste reduction, waste conditioning for homogenisation and waste immobilisation for stabilisation prior to packaging and interim storage. Ensuring the durability and safety of the waste matrices and packages through performance and condition assessment is important for waste owners, waste management organisations, regulators and wider stakeholder communities. Technical achievements and lessons learned from the THERAMIN and PREDIS projects focused on low- and intermediate-level waste handling is shared here. The recently completed project on Thermal Treatment for Radioactive Waste Minimization and Hazard Reduction (THERAMIN) made advances in demonstrating the feasibility of different thermal treatment techniques to reduce volume and immobilise different streams of radioactive waste (LILW) prior to disposal. The Pre-Disposal Management of Radioactive Waste (PREDIS) project addresses innovations in the treatment of metallic materials, liquid organic waste and solid organic waste, which can result from nuclear power plant operation, decommissioning and other industrial processes. The project also addresses digitalisation solutions for improved safety and efficiency in handling and assessing cemented-waste packages in extended interim surface storage. KW - Radioactive waste KW - Predisposal KW - Treatment KW - Monitoring PY - 2022 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-567276 DO - https://doi.org/10.1051/epjn/2022036 SN - 2491-9292 VL - 8 SP - 1 EP - 6 PB - EDP Sciences CY - Les Ulis AN - OPUS4-56727 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Prabhakara, Prathik A1 - Mielentz, Frank A1 - Stolpe, Heiko A1 - Behrens, Matthias A1 - Lay, Vera A1 - Niederleithinger, Ernst T1 - Construction and validation of a novel phased array borehole probe for ultrasonic investigations at sealing structures in radioactive repositories N2 - A new type of ultrasonic borehole probe is currently under development for the quality assurance of sealing structures in radioactive waste repositories using existing research boreholes. The goal is to examine the sealing structures made of salt concrete for possible cracks, delamination, and embedded objects. Earlier prototype probes use 12 or 16 individual dry point contact (DPC) horizontal shear wave transducers grouped into a transmitter and a receiver array, each made up of six or eight individual transducers. They are operated with a commercially available portable ultrasonic flaw detector used in the civil engineering industry. To increase the generated sound pressure of the borehole probe, the number of transducers in the novel probe is increased to 32. In addition, timed excitation of each probe is used to direct a focused sound beam to a specific angle and distance based on calculated time delays. Hence, the sensitive test volume is limited, and the signal-to-noise ratio of the received signals is improved. This paper presents the validation of the newly developed phased array borehole probe by beam computation in CIVA software and experimental investigations on a semi-cylindrical test specimen to investigate the directional characteristics. In combination with geophysical reconstruction techniques, an optimised radiation pattern of the probe is expected to improve the signal quality and thus increase the reliability of the imaging results. This is of great importance for the construction of safe sealing structures needed for the disposal of radioactive or toxic waste. T2 - NDT-CE 2022 CY - Zurich, Switzerland DA - 16.08.2022 KW - Borehole probe KW - Phased array technique KW - SealWasteSafe KW - Monitoring KW - Engineered barrier; PY - 2022 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-568016 SN - 1435-4934 SP - 1 EP - 4 PB - NDT.net AN - OPUS4-56801 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Lay, Vera A1 - Baensch, Franziska A1 - Skłodowska, Anna A1 - Fritsch, Tobias A1 - Stamm, Michael A1 - Prabhakara, Prathik A1 - Johann, Sergej A1 - Sturm, Patrick A1 - Kühne, Hans-Carsten A1 - Niederleithinger, Ernst T1 - Multi–sensory Monitoring and Non–destructive Testing of New Materials for Concrete Engineered Barrier Systems N2 - The crucial part of nuclear waste storage is the construction of sealing structures made of reliable, safe and well–understood materials. We present an extended analysis of long-term multi–sensory monitoring and non–destructive testing (NDT) inspection of two laboratory specimens aiming at potential materials for sealing structures for nuclear waste repositories. Specimens with a volume of 340 litres made from newly developed alkali–activated materials (AAM) and established salt concrete (SC) were analysed using embedded acoustic emission and wireless radio-frequency identification (RFID) sensors, ultrasonic echo imaging, active thermography, and X–ray computed tomography. The monitoring analysis showed lower heat of reaction and 50% less acoustic emission events in AAM compared to SC. However, due to the surface effects of the AAM material, the number of acoustic emission events increased significantly after approximately two months of monitoring. Subsequently performed NDT inspections reliably located embedded sensors and confirmed the absence of major cracks or impurities. The presented laboratory results show the feasibility and potential of comprehensive NDT monitoring and inspection to characterise cementitious and alternative materials as well as the need for multi–parameter long–term monitoring. Thus, our study demonstrates that tailored NDT investigations will help to develop safe sealing structures for nuclear waste repositories. KW - Radioactive waste KW - Barrier KW - Concrete KW - AAM KW - Non-destructive testing PY - 2024 DO - https://doi.org/10.3151/jact.22.516 SN - 1347-3913 VL - 22 IS - 9 SP - 516 EP - 529 PB - Japan Concrete Institute AN - OPUS4-61461 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Holt, Erika A1 - Oksa, Maria A1 - Banford, Anthony A1 - Carbol, Paul A1 - Abdelouas, Abdesselam A1 - Giboire, Isabelle A1 - Mennecart, Thierry A1 - Niederleithinger, Ernst T1 - Predisposal Radioactive Waste Management (PREDIS) Project Final Achievements and Impacts Overview N2 - The PREDIS project on Predisposal of Radioactive Waste has succeeded in developing and implementing new methods, processes and technologies for treatment of challenging low-level waste (LLW) and intermediate level waste (ILW) streams. Over the 4-year duration, this Euratom project of 47 partners from 17 Member States has worked in close collaboration with 25 End User industrial members to advance the technologies associated with predisposal issues. This has included characterisation followed by treatment, conditioning and processing of metallics, liquid organic and solid organic wastes as well as with digitalization technologies for assessing performance of concrete waste packages and pre-disposal storage. Long-term modelling and performance testing have been done to verify the safety and effectiveness of the new or enhanced solutions. Value Assessments were done for some of the new solutions to ensure implementors would have sufficient tools for making choices about the potential implementation. This included life-cycle assessment of quantitative sustainability indicators and life cycle-costing for economic indicators. This project addressed new guidance on Waste Acceptance Criteria and contributed with a revised Strategic Research Agenda to guide future predisposal activities, complimentary to the holistic waste management programme. Knowledge Management actions were also an integral part of the whole project to foster competence development and capturing knowledge. Actions included training, mobility, and guidance especially through online forums such as webinars and digital training. This paper provides a snapshot of some of the key outcomes and impacts from the project, from technical as well as strategic and knowledge perspectives. KW - Nuclear waste KW - Pre-disposal KW - Intermediate storage KW - Treatment KW - Monitoring PY - 2025 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-638480 DO - https://doi.org/10.1051/epjn/2025028 SN - 2491-9292 VL - 11 SP - 1 EP - 7 PB - EDP Sciences AN - OPUS4-63848 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Morichi, M. A1 - Fanchini, E. A1 - Bruggemann, C. A1 - Perot, B. A1 - Ricard, D. A1 - Niederleithinger, Ernst T1 - Developments and experiences of the CHANCE, MICADO and PREDIS projects in radioactive waste characterization N2 - Characterization is a very important step in dealing with materials and waste streams generated during the operational and decommissioning phases of nuclear installations, including nuclear power plants. Characterization allows differentiation between materials that can be released from regulatory control and those that require further treatment and conditioning to become a stable waste form suitable for future storage and final disposal according to its waste classification. Characterization is also needed in the pre-disposal stages of radioactive waste management to demonstrate compliance with the waste acceptance criteria of the facilities that will accept the different waste forms. This work will present the strategies developed and implemented by the three projects for in-depth and accurate waste characterization and investigation of the different radioactive waste packages considered. CHANCE, MICADO, and PREDIS will present their goals, the methods developed, the technologies used and the (preliminary) results contributing to the improvement of the safety and the data and information quality of the waste packages analyzed at the different stages of the waste management process. Special emphasis will also be given to complementary approaches highlighting the usability of the technologies, the accessibility of the data, and the problem-solving of the three projects within the European panorama. KW - Waste management KW - Radioactive waste KW - Waste chracterization PY - 2023 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-571872 DO - https://doi.org/10.1051/epjn/2022052 SN - 2491-9292 VL - 9 IS - 12 SP - 1 EP - 11 PB - EPJ Nuclear Sci. Technol. AN - OPUS4-57187 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Lay, Vera A1 - Mielentz, Frank A1 - Prabhakara, Prathik A1 - Baensch, Franziska A1 - Johann, Sergej A1 - Hofmann, Detlef A1 - Sturm, Patrick A1 - Stamm, Michael A1 - Niederleithinger, Ernst T1 - Multi-sensory monitoring and ultrasound for quality assurance at underground sealing structures N2 - Within the safety concepts of underground disposal sites of nuclear waste, engineered barriers play an important role. As these sealing structures have high demands concerning integrity, we aim at advancing the available construction materials, monitoring, and inspection techniques within the project SealWasteSafe. A specifically developed alkali-activated material is compared to classical salt concrete. A comprehensive multi-sensory monitoring scheme is used at 150-340 l specimens to monitor setting and hardening of both materials. All sensors are demonstrated to resist the highly alkaline environments. Besides cabled and wireless temperature and humidity of the materials, strain variations using fibre optic sensors and acoustic emissions are recorded over periods of at least 28 days, partly for more than eight months. After hardening of the specimens, further nondestructive evaluations using ultrasonic echo and thermographic measurements are conducted. Preliminary results proof the suitability of the tested sensors and clearly highlight differences between the tested materials. Particularly, the newly developed alkali-activated material shows lower acoustic emission activity indicating less cracking activity. Additionally, unique ultrasonic methods will enable better images of potential internal objects and cracks at in-situ sealing structures. A largescale ultrasonic system is optimised to reliably detect objects at a depth exceeding 9 m while still obtaining a good resolution. Modelling studies show the potential of further increasing the distance between individual transducer arrays. Additionally, a new ultrasonic borehole probe using phased arrays allowing for beam focussing is constructed and tested. Laboratory measurements at a halfcylindrical concrete specimen coincide well with the previous modelling. In total, the presented safe materials, detailed monitoring approaches and ultrasonic quality assurance methods will help to obtain safe sealing structures within salt as a host rock. The concepts can partly be transferred to sealing structures in alternative host rocks and will also be valuable for non-nuclear waste repositories. T2 - NDE NucCon CY - Espoo, Finland DA - 25.01.2023 KW - SealWasteSafe KW - Engineered barriers KW - Monitoring KW - Embedded sensors KW - Ultrasonic imaging PY - 2023 SP - 2 EP - 10 AN - OPUS4-56928 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - GEN A1 - Maack, Stefan T1 - Low-frequency ultrasound data (pulse-echo technique) with shear horizontal and longitudinal waves on a reference polyamide specimen “BAM-Pk218” N2 - This dataset contains raw data observed with ultrasound measurements on a polyamide reference specimen at Bundesanstalt für Materialforschung und -prüfung (BAM), Berlin. The internal specimen identifier is „Pk218“. The measurements were conducted using the pulse-echo method. KW - Nondestructive testing KW - Ultrasound KW - Pulse-echo technique KW - Validation KW - Reference material KW - Reconstruction algorithm PY - 2022 DO - https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/KVN7CY PB - Harvard College CY - Cambridge, MA, USA AN - OPUS4-54959 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Lay, Vera A1 - Niederleithinger, Ernst A1 - Köpp, Christan T1 - Monitoring and digital tools for pre-disposal handling of cemented wastes N2 - Multifaceted developments for pre-disposal management of low and intermediate level radioactive waste are undertaken in the EC funded project PREDIS. In work package 7, innovations in cemented waste handling and pre-disposal storage are advanced by testing and evaluating. To provide better means for safe and effective monitoring of cemented waste packages including prediction tools to assess the future integrity development during pre-disposal activities, several monitoring and digital tools are evaluated and improved. Both safety enhancement (e. g. less exposure of testing personnel) and cost effectiveness are part of the intended impact. Current methods to pack, store, and monitor cemented wastes are identified, analysed and improved. Innovative integrity testing and monitoring techniques applied to evaluate and demonstrate package and storage quality assurance are further developed. The work includes but is not limited to inspection methods such as muon imaging, wireless sensors integrated into waste packages as well as external package and facility monitoring such as remote fiber optical sensors. The sensors applied will go beyond radiation monitoring and include proxy parameters important for long term integrity assessment (e. g. internal pressure). The measured data will be used in digital twins of the packages for specific simulations (geochemical, integrity) providing a prediction of future behaviour. Machine Learning techniques trained by the characterization of older packages will help to connect the models to the actual data. As data handling, processing and fusion are crucial for both the monitoring and the digital twin model, all data (measured and simulated) will be collected in a joint data base and connected to a decision framework. Finally, the implementation of the improved techniques will be tested at actual facilities. An overview about various relevant tools, their interconnections, and first research results will be shown. T2 - 9th IGD-TP Symposium CY - Zurich, Switzerland DA - 20.09.2022 KW - Predis KW - Monitoring KW - Sensors KW - Simulation KW - Digital twin PY - 2022 AN - OPUS4-55827 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Grohmann, Maria A1 - Niederleithinger, Ernst A1 - Büttner, Christoph A1 - Buske, Stefan T1 - Application of iterative elastic reverse time migration to shear horizontal ultrasonic echo data obtained at a concrete step specimen N2 - The ultrasonic echo technique is broadly applied in non‐destructive testing (NDT) of concrete structures involving tasks such as measuring thickness, determining geometry and locating built‐in elements. To address the challenge of enhancing ultrasonic imaging for complex concrete constructions, we adapted a seismic imaging algorithm – reverse time migration (RTM) – for NDT in civil engineering. Unlike the traditionally applied synthetic aperture focusing technique (SAFT), RTM takes into account the full wavefield including primary and reflected arrivals as well as multiples. This capability enables RTM to effectively handle all wave phenomena, unlimited by changes in velocity and reflector inclinations. This paper concentrates on applying and evaluating a two‐dimensional elastic RTM algorithm that specifically addresses horizontally polarized shear (SH) waves only, as these are predominantly used in ultrasonic NDT of concrete structures. The elastic SH RTM algorithm was deployed for imaging real ultrasonic echo SH‐wave data obtained at a concrete specimen exhibiting a complex back wall geometry and containing four tendon ducts. As these features are frequently encountered in practical NDT scenarios, their precise imaging holds significant importance. By applying the elastic SH RTM algorithm, we successfully reproduced nearly all reflectors within the concrete specimen. In particular, we were capable of accurately reconstructing all vertically oriented reflectors as well as the circular cross sections of three tendon ducts, which was not achievable with traditional SAFT imaging. These findings demonstrate that elastic SH RTM holds the ability to considerably improve the imaging of complex concrete geometries, marking a crucial advancement for accurate, high‐quality ultrasonic NDT in civil engineering. KW - Engineering KW - Finite-Difference Time Domain KW - Non-Destructive KW - Seismic KW - Migration KW - Ultrasonic-Echo Technique PY - 2024 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-608744 DO - https://doi.org/10.1002/nsg.12318 SN - 1569-4445 VL - 2024 SP - 1 EP - 22 PB - Wiley AN - OPUS4-60874 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Bahrami Eskandari, Ardalan A1 - Nikkhoo, Ali A1 - Hajirasouliha, Iman T1 - Analyzing Vertical Earthquake Vibrations and Moving Vehicle Loads for Structural Health Monitoring and Vibration Suppression in Bridges N2 - The design of bridges often overlooks the vertical component of earthquakes or considers it of secondary importance, despite compelling evidence indicating specific structural damage caused by primary earthquake waves. Conversely, during the operational phase, the combined influence of ground motion and moving loads from vehicles can significantly impact the structural health monitoring (SHM) of bridges. This study aims to evaluate the simultaneous effect of vertical earthquake vibrations and moving vehicle loads on simply supported bridges. The research employs a practical methodology based on the eigenfunction expansion method to analyze change of deflection due to the effect of these concurrent forces under seven different earthquake records. It is shown that within a realistic range of vehicle mass and velocity, the average of changing the maximum deflection at the mid-span of the main beam (denoted as M_n) reaches up to 163% under various scenarios. Subsequently, the seismic parameters influencing this phenomenon are identified through a statistical analysis of set of 100 different earthquake records with unique features. A linear regression equation is presented to predict the M_n based on the earthquake specific properties. Additionally, to control the vertical vibration of bridge systems, a novel vibration suppression system utilizing steel pipe dampers is introduced, and its reliability is examined across a broad spectrum of bridge flexural rigidity. The results indicate that the system's efficiency depends on M_n and the soil type of the bridge construction, enabling a reduction in structural sections (up to 27%) while achieving the same maximum target deflection in the initial state. This efficiency leads to a more economical design solution, emphasizing the potential benefits of the proposed system for practical application. T2 - 11th European Workshop on Structural Health Monitoring (EWSHM 2024) CY - Potsdam, Germany DA - 10.06.2024 KW - Bridge structures KW - Vertical earthquakes KW - Health monitoring KW - Moving vehicles KW - Suppressing vibrations PY - 2024 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-604893 DO - https://doi.org/10.58286/29746 SP - 1 EP - 10 PB - NDT.net AN - OPUS4-60489 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Bahrami Eskandari, Ardalan A1 - Küttenbaum, Stefan T1 - NDT Data-Supported Structural Reassessments based on Regression Relations in Measuring Data Analysis N2 - Non-destructive Testing (NDT) provides valuable data about structural elements, supporting the assessment of existing infrastructures without incurring additional structural damage from inspections. Simultaneously, the uncertainty in measurement, which quantifies the quality of measurement results, plays a crucial role in decisions aimed at, e.g., optimizing maintenance strategies, rehabilitation works and Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) implementations. The Guide to the Expression of Uncertainty in Measurement (GUM) framework has already been considered for non-destructive concrete testing. Regarding that, extensive measurements with sophisticated scopes need to be conducted by experts as an obligatory process. This study illustrates how NDT results describing the inner structure of a concrete element can effectively support the reassessment of bridges in operation. To achieve this, the study considers the various measurable positions of the resisting longitudinal tendons of a bridge structure to investigate the displacement change under dynamic service loads. Furthermore, this study aims to simplify and optimize existing NDT data analysis procedures by employing regression analysis, enabling the detection of structural features. This regression analysis yields a modifier for determining the correct depth of an object within the structural element. The method is validated through laboratory experiments, including the use of an ultrasonic measurement system. As a result, it provides unbiased and accurately measured results, while ensuring that the measurement data can remain uncorrelated. Major advantages include efficient computation, a wider scope, and avoiding redundant information about the measuring process. The findings demonstrate that employing the proposed NDT analysis method, with its enhanced practicability, can significantly augment the efficiency of NDT data-supported structural reassessments across various scenarios. T2 - EWSHM 2024 CY - Potsdam, Germany DA - 10.06.2024 KW - Existing structures KW - Non-destructive testing KW - Practicality measurement KW - Bridge reassessment KW - Statistical analysis PY - 2024 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-604825 DO - https://doi.org/10.58286/29714 SN - 1435-4934 SP - 1 EP - 9 PB - NDT.net AN - OPUS4-60482 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Bertola, N. A1 - Schumacher, T. A1 - Niederleithinger, Ernst A1 - Bruehwiler, E. T1 - Early detection of structural damage in UHPFRC structures through the combination of acoustic emission and ultrasonic stress wave monitoring N2 - Ultra-High-Performance Fiber-Reinforced Cementitious Composite (UHPFRC) offers several advantages compared to concrete, notably due to the strain hardening behavior under tensile actions. Structures made of this composite material are lightweight and highly durable, thanks to the UHPFRC waterproofing quality. Nonetheless, the tensile behavior leads to a different cracking pattern than conventional concrete and is not fully understood yet. This paper presents a combined approach using both passive ultrasonic (US) stress wave (or acoustic emission) and active US stress wave monitoring to localize and quantify damage progression in a full-scale UHPFRC beam during experimental load testing. The proposed monitoring approach involves 24 US transducers that are embedded randomly throughout a 4.2- meter-long laboratory UHPFRC T-beam. Continuous monitoring enabled accurate localization of US stress sources caused by loading-induced cracking as well as from pulses generated by the embedded US transducers. This study shows that it is possible to predict the location and shape of the macro-crack that is linked to structural failure early on, i.e., just after the end of the elastic domain. This combined approach opens new possibilities to monitor the structural behavior and detect damage on UHPFRC structures before they affect the structural behavior in terms of deflection and strain. T2 - 11th European Workshop on Structural Health Monitoring (EWSHM 2024) CY - Potsdam, Germany DA - 11.6.2024 KW - UHPFRC KW - Acoustic emission KW - Damage detection PY - 2024 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-604708 UR - https://www.ndt.net/article/ewshm2024/papers/477_manuscript.pdf DO - https://doi.org/10.58286/29698 SN - 1435-4934 SP - 1 EP - 8 PB - NDT.net AN - OPUS4-60470 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Schumacher, T. A1 - Bertola, N. A1 - Epple, Niklas A1 - Bruehwiler, E. A1 - Niederleithinger, Ernst T1 - Combined Passive and Active Ultrasonic Stress Wave Monitoring of Concrete Structures: An Overview of Data Analysis Techniques and Their Applications and Limitations N2 - Combined passive ultrasonic (US) stress wave [better known as acoustic emission (AE)] and active US stress wave monitoring has been shown to provide a more holistic picture of ongoing fracture processes, damage progression, as well as slowly occurring aging and degradation mechanisms in concrete structures. Traditionally, different data analysis techniques have been used to analyze the data generated from these two monitoring techniques. For passive US stress wave monitoring, waveform amplitudes, hit rates, source localization, and b-value analysis, among others, have been used to detect and locate cracking. On the other hand, amplitude tracking, magnitude squared coherence (MSC), and coda wave interferometry (CWI) are examples of analyses that have been employed for active US stress wave monitoring. In this paper, we explore some of these data analysis techniques and show where their respective applications and limitations might be. After providing an overview of the monitoring approach and the different data analysis techniques, results and observations from selected laboratory experiments are discussed. Finally, suggestions for further work are proposed. T2 - 11th European Workshop on Structural Health Monitoring (EWSHM 2024) CY - Potsdam, Germany DA - 11.06.2024 KW - Ultrasound KW - Acoustic emission KW - Concrete KW - Stress PY - 2024 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-604687 UR - https://www.ndt.net/article/ewshm2024/papers/824_manuscript.pdf DO - https://doi.org/10.58286/29863 SN - 1435-4934 SP - 1 EP - 8 PB - NDT.net AN - OPUS4-60468 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Skłodowska, Anna A1 - Baensch, Franziska A1 - Lay, Vera A1 - Niederleithinger, Ernst A1 - Kühne, Hans-Carsten T1 - Acoustic emission monitoring for engineered barriers in nuclear waste disposal N2 - To safely dispose of nuclear waste in underground facilities, engineered barrier systems are needed to seal shafts and galleries. The material used in these barriers must be adapted to the host rock parameters. Shrinking and cracking must be avoided to provide a barrier with almost zero permeability. For repositories in salt rock environments, several types of salt concrete (SC) are possible construction materials. Within the project SealWasteSafe, we compared the behavior of an innovative alkali-activated material (AAM) with standard SC in their hydration and hardening phase. To monitor the microstructural changes within the two materials SC and AAM, acoustic emission (AE) signals have been recorded for up to ~250 days on 340-litercubic specimens. The phenomenon of AE is defined as the emission of elastic waves in materials due to the release of localized internal energy. Such energy release can be caused by the nucleation of micro-fracture, e.g., in concrete while curing or when exposed to load. The occurrence of AE events gives first rough indications of microstructural changes and potentially occurring cracking and thus, provides insights for structural health monitoring (SHM). The results show, that for the first 28 days after casting, less AE activity was detected in the AAM compared to SC. After 61 days, in the AAM material, the number of AE events exceeded those observed in the SC. However, the majority of the AE detected and located in AAM was related to surface effects, and not to microstructural changes or occurring cracks within the bulk volume. Additionally, the source location analysis indicated, that despite lower activity in SC, we observed some clustering of the events. In contrast, in AAM, the activity inside the specimen is randomly distributed over the whole volume. The monitoring results help to estimate the material’s sealing properties which are crucial to assess their applicability as sealing material for engineered barriers. T2 - 11th European Workshop on Structural Health Monitoring (EWSHM 2024) CY - Potsdam, Germany DA - 11.06.2024 KW - Endlager KW - Barriere KW - AAM KW - Akustische Emission PY - 2024 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-604699 UR - https://www.ndt.net/article/ewshm2024/papers/768_manuscript.pdf DO - https://doi.org/10.58286/29834 SN - 1435-4934 SP - 1 EP - 7 PB - NDT.net AN - OPUS4-60469 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - RPRT A1 - Niederleithinger, Ernst A1 - Chapuzet, C. A1 - Ben Lagha, S. A1 - Zovini, C. A1 - Uras, S. A1 - Doupou, S. A1 - Köpp, Christian T1 - Assess potential technologies for implementation phase, considering cost-benefit ratio and availability (Technology Selection) N2 - Technology selection is an important part of the planning process when setting up a waste management programme. This continues to be crucial during implementation of the programme to evaluate if suitable technologies are being implemented. This Domain Insight document provides guidance on the assessment and selection of potential technologies for implementation during the pre-disposal phase of the waste management lifecycle, considering factors such as cost-benefit ratio and availability (EURAD Pre-disposal theme overview, domain 2.1.3, Technology Selection), as a part of the sub-theme “Planning pre-disposal management of radioactive waste in close cooperation with waste generators” (Planning) and, on the broader theme 2 “Pre-disposal Activities prior to geological disposal” (Pre-disposal). In the planning process for a waste management programme, it is critical for the waste owner to assess the feasibility of technologies for processing, storage, and monitoring, taking economic constraints into account and considering subsequent stages in the waste management lifecycle, including final disposal. In addition, technology selection must be based on the waste inventory that has been generated, planned waste stream composition and the evolution of resulting waste packages in storages. The accuracy, effectiveness and efficiency of the technologies deployed in a facility require periodic review and update, as needed, throughout the lifetime of the facility. KW - Radioactive waste KW - Management KW - Final disposal KW - Intermediate storage KW - Technology selection PY - 2024 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-608795 UR - https://predis-h2020.eu/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/EURAD_PREDIS-DI-2.1.3.-Technology-selection.pdf SP - 1 EP - 16 AN - OPUS4-60879 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Maack, Stefan A1 - Küttenbaum, Stefan A1 - Niederleithinger, Ernst ED - Rogge, Andreas ED - Meng, Birgit T1 - Baulicher IST-Zustand zur Bewertung von Betonbrücken auf der Grundlage messtechnischer Kennwerte - ZfPStatik N2 - Das Projekt „ZfPStatik“ entwickelt eine Handlungsempfehlung zur Bewertung bestehender Bauwerke mit Hilfe zerstörungsfreier Messdaten. Durch die Bauwerksprüfungen können Unsicherheiten bei der Nachrechnung reduziert werden, wodurch realistischere Beurteilungen der Standsicherheit und Gebrauchstauglichkeit ermöglicht werden. Zudem wird die Entwicklung neuer Ingenieurdienstleistungen gefördert. Zerstörungsfreie Prüfverfahren haben insgesamt das Potential, die Entscheidungsgrundlagen für die Beurteilung und Erhaltung bestehender Bauwerke zu verbessern. T2 - 11. Jahrestagung des DAfStb mit 63. Forschungskolloquium der BAM Green Intelligent Building CY - Berlin, Germany DA - 16.10.2024 KW - Betonbrücken KW - ZfPStatik KW - Bauwerksprüfungen PY - 2024 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-613290 SN - 978-3-9818564-7-7 SP - 303 EP - 308 PB - Bundesanstalt für Materialforschung und -prüfung (BAM) CY - Berlin AN - OPUS4-61329 LA - deu AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Sunkavalli, Viswa Ratnasri T1 - Thickness Measurements of Polyamide Specimens using Fluidic Oscillator as a Frequency Modulated Air-Coupled Ultrasonic Transducer N2 - Ultrasonic inspection, especially contact and immersion methods, have become established techniques for non-destructive testing in civil engineering (NDT-CE). However, the requirement for coupling agents renders these methods cumbersome in practice due to the potential for surface defacement and an arduous measurement process. Consequently, air-coupled ultrasonic transducers have been proposed as an alternative to address these concerns. These (alternatives), however, come with their own challenges, such as a significant impedance mismatch between the air and the specimen as well as the susceptibility of time of flight (TOF) measurements to ambient conditions. Recently, fluidic oscillators have been developed for in-air sound generation to alleviate impedance mismatch and improve the overall robustness, which is an important consideration of NDT-CE applications. The advantage of fluidic oscillators lies in their ability to generate an ultrasonic signal via oscillating air jet excited by a self-actuated fluctuation. Using air as the operating medium provides a supplementary benefit of lowering measurement durations in addition to a substantial drop in acoustic impedance losses with air acting both as an actuation as well as a coupling medium. Thus, TOF measurements using such fluidic transducers are expected to enable faster characterization of specimen parameters. In that regard, material characterization of polyamide is carried out using ultrasound generated by fluidic devices. Additionally, the mass flow rate of the operating fluid is observed to have a significant effect on the frequency of the fluidic oscillator. Accordingly, the frequency of the oscillation is modulated by varying the supply pressure, leading to a varying flow rate, which in turn facilitates a robust and reliable assessment of the TOF through the material by the generated chirp signals. Furthermore, such frequency modulations effectively improve the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). Along with a comprehensive study of these new fluidic transducers, preliminary measurement findings are presented, including the material characterization of polymers using air-coupled, frequency-modulated ultrasound. T2 - European Conference on Non-Destructive Testing (ECNDT) CY - Lisbon, Portugal DA - 03.07.2023 KW - Air coupled ultrasound KW - Fluidic actuator PY - 2023 AN - OPUS4-57940 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Strangfeld, Christoph T1 - Moisture testing and mapping N2 - Presentation of the Non-destructive testing and evaluation advanced training workshop of division 8.2 regarding moisture measurements. T2 - NDT&E Advanced Training Workshop CY - Berlin, Germany DA - 21.06.2023 KW - Material moisture KW - Moisture transport KW - Building materials KW - Concrete KW - Moisture measurement techniques PY - 2023 AN - OPUS4-57799 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Strangfeld, Christoph T1 - Moisture testing and mapping N2 - Most building materials are porous and hydrophilic. Thus, for condition assessment and damage detection a determination of the material moisture is required. In this lecture, a short overview is given regarding moisture transport in porous media in the hygroscopic range. Then, several non-destructive measurement techniques are introduced. Here, the focus lies on their practical application and limitations. T2 - NDT&E Advanced Training Workshop CY - Berlin, Germany DA - 03.07.2024 KW - Building materials KW - Concrete KW - Material moisture KW - Moisture measurement techniques KW - Moisture transport PY - 2024 AN - OPUS4-60605 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Strangfeld, Christoph T1 - A brief introduction to wind turbine aerodynamics N2 - In general, wind turbines transform the kinetic energy of the wind into electric power. Thereby, the wind turbine blades are facing unsteady loads which are transferred to the hub to generate a rotation of the turbine’s axis. This brief introduction focuses on the aerodynamics of the blades and the corresponding loads. Starting with the basic flow field and loads of an airfoil, terms like stagnation point, boundary layer, Reynolds number, transition, and separation are introduced. For different geometries, lift and drag coefficient curves are discussed. Then, full wings will be considered, including their three-dimensional flow field due to wing tip vortices and crossflows. As a main source of increased loads, unsteady effects are explained in more detail such as gusts, tower passing, earth boundary layer crossing, free stream turbulences, yaw misalignment, etc. At the end, extra loads due to an oscillating free stream are introduced. T2 - QI-Digital: KI-Machbarkeitsstudie Thermografie Rotorblätter CY - Berlin, Germany DA - 13.12.2022 KW - Wind turbine KW - Nondestructive testing KW - Aerodynamics KW - Dynamic stall PY - 2022 AN - OPUS4-56728 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Bühling, Benjamin T1 - Using a spectral entropy criterion for improved onset picking in ultrasonic testing N2 - In ultrasonic testing, the time of flight (ToF) of a signal can be used to infer material and structural properties of a test item. In dispersive media, extracting the bulk wave velocity from a received signal is challenging as the waveform changes along its path of propagation. When using signal features such as the first peak or the envelope maximum, the calculated velocity changes with the propagation distance. This does not occur when picking the signal onset. Borrowing from seismology, researchers used the Akaike information criterion (AIC) picker to automatically obtain onset times. In addition to being dependent on arbitrarily set parameters, the AIC picker assumes no prior knowledge of the spectral properties of the signal. This is unnecessary in ultrasonic through-transmission testing, where the signal spectrum is known to differ significantly from noise. In this contribution, a novel parameter-free onset picker is proposed, that is based on a spectral entropy criterion (SEC) to model the signal using the AIC framework. Synthetic and experimental data are used to compare the performance of SEC and AIC pickers, showing an improved accuracy for densely sampled data. T2 - 183rd Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America CY - Nashville, TN, USA DA - 05.12.2022 KW - ToF KW - Arrival time KW - Nondestructive testing KW - Through-transmission KW - AIC picker PY - 2022 AN - OPUS4-56616 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Strangfeld, Christoph T1 - Moisture diffusion affected by the Knudsen effect in temporal changing pore networks N2 - Almost all building materials in civil engineering have an open porosity and interact with or are affected by the environmental conditions. Structures might suffer from effects such as moisture adsorption, carbonation, corrosion, penetration of salt ions and chemical substances, etc. In the hygroscopic range, these processes are mostly driven by diffusion. Due to the confinement of small pores ( 1 m), the Knudsen effect reduces the molecular diffusion. This reduction can become more significant in case of temporal changing pore systems because of physisorption of water vapor, carbonation, or chemisorption. In this study, unstabilised earth blocks and earth masonry are investigated. In a first step, the pore size distribution of the blocks is measured and sorption isotherms are recorded in experiments. Besides the ordinary physisorption, the involved clay minerals undergo swelling or shrinking due to chemisorption. The following two effects must be considered: first, the reduction of the available pore space by the adsorbed water layer. For this, the Hillerborg sorption theory is used, which is a combination of the well-known Brunauer-Emmett-Teller sorption theory and the Kelvin equation. This allows the computation of adsorbed water layers even in curved pore geometries. Second, the variation of the initial pore size distribution due to chemisorption needs to be modelled. Based on these two models, the effective diffusion coefficient can be predicted. For validation, arrays of relative humidity sensors were embedded into a free-standing earth masonry wall. This monitoring was carried out over more than a year to have a broad variety of environmental conditions and was located in Berlin, Germany. The prediction of the effective diffusion coefficient can also be transferred to other processes and allows the investigation of materials having temporarily changing pore systems. Examples are the carbonation of cementitious materials, alkali silica reaction, calcium leaching of long-lasting structures, etc. This effect becomes most prominent in the meso-pore range and might alter the effective diffusion coefficient by more than 100 %. T2 - 4th International Congress on Materials & Structural Stability CY - Rabat, Morocco DA - 08.03.2023 KW - Earth masonry KW - Material moisture KW - Molecular diffusion KW - Chemisoprtion KW - Knudsen effect KW - Physisorption PY - 2023 AN - OPUS4-57140 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Kruschwitz, Sabine T1 - Junior Research Group Materials Characterization and Informatics for Sustainability in Civil Engeneering (CE) N2 - Vorstellung der Themen der Nachwuchsgruppe "Materialcharakterisierung und -informatik für die Nachhaltigkeit im Bauwesen" von Prof. Sabine Kruschwitz (TU Berlin und BAM) T2 - Themenkonferenz Nachhaltiges Bauen CY - Berlin, Germany DA - 08.12.2022 KW - Recycling KW - NMR KW - Materialcharakterisierung KW - Data Science PY - 2022 AN - OPUS4-56648 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Neumann, Patrick P. A1 - Bartholmai, Matthias T1 - Towards Autonomous NDT Inspection: Setup and Validation of an Indoor Localization System N2 - Monitoring and maintenance of civil infrastructure are of great importance, as any undetected damage can cause high repair costs, unintended deadtime, or endanger structural integrity. The inspection of large concrete structures such as bridges and parking lots is particularly challenging and time-consuming. Traditional methods are mostly manual and involve mapping a grid of measurement lines to record the position of each measurement. Current semi-automated methods, on the other hand, use GPS or tachymeters for localization but still require trained personnel to operate. An entirely automated approach using mobile robots would be more cost- and time-efficient. While there have been developments in using GPS-enabled mobile robots for bridge inspection, the weak signal strength in indoor areas poses a challenge for the automated inspection of structures such as parking lots. This paper aims to develop a solution for the automated inspection of large indoor concrete structures by addressing the problem of robot localization in indoor spaces and the automated measurement of concrete cover and rebar detection. T2 - 39th Danubia-Adria Symposium on Advances in Experimental Mechanics CY - Siófok, Hungary DA - 26.09.2023 KW - NDT Inspection KW - Mobile Robot KW - Indoor Localization KW - Setup and Validation PY - 2023 AN - OPUS4-58662 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Strangfeld, Christoph T1 - Rissdetektion Spannbetonschwellen - Meilensteinpräsentation AP C.1 N2 - Vorhaben 8082: Spannbetonschwellen sollen mit Hilfe von akustischen Verfahren untersucht und der Zustand abgeleitet werden. Die Ergebnisse von Los C- Arbeitspaket 1 werden dem Deutschen Zentrum für Schienenforschung und Siemens Mobility vorgestellt. T2 - DZSF - Rissdetektion Spannbetonschwellen - Meilensteinpräsentation Arbeitspakete B.1 und C.1 CY - Dresden, Germany DA - 23.04.2024 KW - Spannbetonschwellen KW - Zerstörungsfreie Prüfung KW - Akustische Verfahren KW - Zustandsermittlung PY - 2024 AN - OPUS4-59927 LA - deu AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Strangfeld, Christoph T1 - Zustandsermittlung von Spannbetonschwellen N2 - -Über 80 Mio. Schwellen im deutschen Schienennetz verbaut -Lebensdauer einer Schwelle beträgt ca. 20 bis 50 Jahre -Über 2 Mio. Schwellen werden jährlich ausgetauscht, obwohl die Mehrzahl noch intakt ist -Zustandsbewertung mittels ZfP kann Ausschuss verringern -Schadhafte Schwellen könnten mittels ZfP frühzeitig im Gleis erkannt werden, um Gefahren und Unfälle abzuwenden T2 - DZSF - Rissdetektion Spannbetonschwellen - Meilensteinpräsentation Arbeitspakete B.1 und C.1 CY - Dresden, Germany DA - 23.04.2024 KW - Spannbetonschwellen KW - Zerstörungsfreie Prüfung KW - Ultraschallverfahren KW - Zustandsermittlung PY - 2024 AN - OPUS4-59928 LA - deu AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Küttenbaum, Stefan A1 - Maack, Stefan A1 - Aßmann, Norman A1 - Feistkorn, S. T1 - Ways to unlock the potential of non-destructive concrete testing for the reliability assessment of our built environment N2 - This contribution attempts to shed light on the application of POD analyses and measurement uncertainty calculations in nondestructive testing of concrete structures to provide useful and quality-assured information for reliability assessments of our built environment - with an emphasis on ground penetrating radar. It is shown that signal processing techniques affect POD analysis results to varying degrees, that measurement uncertainties are useful to validate PODs, and that the utilization of both POD analysis and measurement uncertainty calculations can pave the way to NDT-based reliability assessment, which will be exemplarily demonstrated in conclusion – generally aiming to derive those maintenance strategies and actions that are in line with actual demands. T2 - SPIE Smart Structures + Nondestructive Evaluation 2023 CY - Los Angeles, USA DA - 12.03.2023 KW - Probability of detection KW - Measurement uncertainty KW - Ground penetrating radar (GPR) KW - Existing structures PY - 2023 DO - https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2658736 VL - 12491 SP - 1 EP - 11 PB - SPIE AN - OPUS4-57393 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Johann, Sergej A1 - Stührenberg, Jan A1 - Tandon, Aditya A1 - Dragos, Kosmas A1 - Bartholmai, Matthias A1 - Strangfeld, Christoph A1 - Smarsly, Kay T1 - Implementation and validation of robot-enabled embedded sensors for structural health monitoring N2 - In the past decades, structural health monitoring (SHM) has matured into a viable supplement to regular inspections, facilitating the execution of repair and maintenance work in the early stages of structural damage. With the advent of wireless technologies and advancements in information and communication technologies, civil infrastructure has been increasingly instrumented with wireless sensor nodes to record, analyze, and communicate data relevant to SHM. A promising method for SHM is to embed sensors directly into concrete for recording SHM data from inside structural elements. In this paper, a sensor system for embedment into concrete is proposed, able to assess SHM data recorded from concrete. Power is supplied to the sensors on-demand by quadruped robots, which also collect the SHM data via radio-frequency identification (RFID), providing an automated and efficient SHM process. In laboratory experiments, the capability of the sensor system of automatically collecting the SHM data using quadruped robots is validated. In summary, the integration of RFID technology and robot-based inspection presented in this study demonstrates a vital approach to evolve current SHM practices towards more digitalized and automated SHM. T2 - 11th European Workshop On Structural Health Monitoring CY - Potsdam, Germany DA - 10.06.2024 KW - Structural health monitoring KW - RFID-based sensors KW - Smart sensors KW - Embedded sensors KW - Legged robots KW - Quadruped robots PY - 2024 SP - 1 EP - 8 AN - OPUS4-60335 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Johann, Sergej T1 - Implementation and validation of robot-enabled embedded sensors for structural health monitoring N2 - In the past decades, structural health monitoring (SHM) has matured into a viable supplement to regular inspections, facilitating the execution of repair and maintenance work in the early stages of structural damage. With the advent of wireless technologies and advancements in information and communication technologies, civil infrastructure has been increasingly instrumented with wireless sensor nodes to record, analyze, and communicate data relevant to SHM. A promising method for SHM is to embed sensors directly into concrete for recording SHM data from inside structural elements. In this paper, a sensor system for embedment into concrete is proposed, able to assess SHM data recorded from concrete. Power is supplied to the sensors on-demand by quadruped robots, which also collect the SHM data via radio-frequency identification (RFID), providing an automated and efficient SHM process. In laboratory experiments, the capability of the sensor system of automatically collecting the SHM data using quadruped robots is validated. In summary, the integration of RFID technology and robot-based inspection presented in this study demonstrates a vital approach to evolve current SHM practices towards more digitalized and automated SHM. T2 - 11th European Workshop On Structural Health Monitoring CY - Potsdam, Germany DA - 10.06.2024 KW - Structural health monitoring KW - RFID-based sensors KW - Smart sensors KW - Embedded sensors KW - Legged robots KW - Quadruped robots PY - 2024 AN - OPUS4-60336 LA - deu AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Maack, Stefan A1 - Torrent, R. A1 - Ebell, Gino A1 - Völker, Tobias A1 - Küttenbaum, Stefan T1 - Testing to reassess – Corrosion activity assessment based on NDT using a prestressed concrete bridge as case-study N2 - Corrosion of concrete reinforcement is one of the major damage mechanisms affecting both the load-bearing capacity and the serviceability of re-inforced concrete structures significantly. When externally discernible damages are observed during visual inspections on the structure, the extent of the damage inside the concrete is often already significant. Corrosion caused by carbonation often leads to severe discoloration of the surface or even large-area spalling of the concrete cover. In contrast, chloride-induced corrosion is usually difficult to observe visually but can cause much more serious damage in less time. The effect occurs locally and can lead to weakening of the cross-section of the reinforce-ment. This, in turn, can cause sudden structural collapses without prior notice. In the meanwhile, various non-destructive and minimally invasive testing methods are available to evaluate the resistance to penetration of corrosion-pro-moting pollutants and to detect active corrosion. In this paper, a bridge crossing the river Regen is used as a case-study to demonstrate how the information ob-tained applying different testing methods can be combined and evaluated in the context of structural reassessments. Both the results of the permeability testing and the electrical resistance measurement are considered, as well as active corro-sion areas are localized using the half-cell potential mapping combined with the concrete cover measurement with the eddy current method and ground penetrat-ing radar. The results are evaluated using drill cores and in addition laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy was applied to obtain information about possible chlo-ride ion transport into the concrete. T2 - EUROSTRUCT 2021 – 1ST conference of the european association on quality control of bridges and structures - Eurostruct CY - Padova, Italy DA - 30.08.2021 KW - Nondestructive testing KW - Corrosion KW - Bridge KW - Durability assessment KW - Civil engineering PY - 2022 SN - 978-3-030-91876-7 SP - 1 EP - 9 PB - Springer International Publishing AN - OPUS4-54006 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Feistkorn, S. A1 - Algernon, D. A1 - Arndt, R. A1 - Ebell, Gino A1 - Friese, M. A1 - Grosse, C. U. A1 - Holstein, R. A1 - Niederleithiger, Ernst A1 - Schickert, M. A1 - Schulze, S. A1 - Taffe, A. A1 - Walther, A. A1 - Wolf, J. A1 - Zoega, A. A1 - Zwanzig, M. T1 - Introduction to DIN 4871: Qualification of NDT Personnel in Civil Engineering (NDT‐CE) N2 - Recently, non-destructive testing in civil engineering (NDT-CE), in particular of concrete components, has successfully mastered the leap from research to practice. Several methods have been established for field inspections to determine the concrete cover of reinforcement or to estimate the compressive strength as well as other parameters related to the concrete material. In addition, the application of non-destructive testing is indispensable, if information about the inner structure - such as the location of rebars and tendon ducts or the damage-related condition assessment to detect grouting defects, honeycombs, delamination, or corrosion - is required. Besides the selection of a suitable NDT method and an appropriate inspection system, the reliability of the results depends largely on the person who applies the non-destructive inspection technique and evaluates the inspection results. To ensure a high quality of non-destructive concrete evaluation as well as to keep the uncertainty caused by the inspection personnel to a minimum, structured, consistent, and regulated theoretical as well as practical training of inspection personnel is essential. To close this gap, the subcommittee of education and training (UA-A) within the committee for NDT-CE of the German Society for Non-Destructive Testing (DGZfP) has been reactivated in 2018 to establish uniform training standards for non-destructive concrete inspections in the long term. The subcommittee consists of scientists, practitioners, authorities, and clients. So far, the national standard DIN 4871 “Non-destructive testing - Qualification of NDT personnel in Civil Engineering (NDT-CE)” was developed. This standard considers the civil-industry-specifics, for example, that standards for NDT of concrete, as well as related product standards with a few exceptions, still do not exist at the moment. Within this presentation, the concept, the connection to ISO 9712 and other standards as well as an overview of the recently developed German standard DIN 4871 will be presented. T2 - NDT-CE 2022 CY - Zurich, Switzerland DA - 16.08.2022 KW - Non-destrucive testing KW - Civil engineering PY - 2022 AN - OPUS4-55526 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Schwarz, W. A1 - Wilsch, Gerd A1 - Katsumi, N. A1 - Ebell, Gino A1 - Völker, Tobias T1 - Ion distribution in concrete overlay, mapped by laser induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS), modified by an embedded zinc anode N2 - Galvanic corrosion protection by embedded zinc anodes is an accepted technique for the corrosion protection of reinforcing steel in concrete. Galvanic currents flow between the zinc anode and the steel reinforcement due to the potential difference that is in the range of a few hundred mV. The ion distribution was studied on two steel reinforced concrete specimens admixed with 3 wt.% chloride/wt. cement and galvanically protected by a surface applied EZ-anode. On both specimens, a zinc anode was embedded and glued to the concrete surface by a geo-polymer-based chloride-free binder. At one specimen, the EZ-anode was operated for 2,5 years, the EZ-anode at the other specimen was not electrically connected to the reinforcement, this specimen serves as a reference. Both specimens have been stored under identical conditions. The ion distribution between the anode (EZ-anode) and cathode (steel reinforcement) was studied by laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) after 7 months, 12 months, and 2,5 years. Results of the LIBS studies on the specimen with activated EZ-anode after 7 months, 12 months, and 2,5 years and of the reference specimen after 2,5 years are reported. Results show that diffusion of ions contributes to the changes in the ion distribution but migration, especially of chlorides towards the EZ-anode is significant despite the weak electric field – several hundred millivolts - generated by the galvanic current. Results show that chloride ions accumulate near the zinc-anode as in water-insoluble zinc-hydroxy chlorides - Simonkolleit. T2 - ICCRRR 2022 CY - Capetown, South Africa DA - 03.10.2022 KW - Korrosion KW - Corrosion KW - LIBS KW - Zinc PY - 2022 AN - OPUS4-55948 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Maack, Stefan T1 - Testing to reasses - Corrosion activity assessment based on NDT using a prestressed concrete bridge as case study N2 - Corrosion of concrete reinforcement is one of the major damage mechanisms affecting both the load-bearing capacity and the serviceability of reinforced concrete structures significantly. The challenge of detecting corrosion is that the corrosion process in its various forms is not immediately visible, especially in the corrosion initiation phase inside the concrete. When externally discernible damages are observed during visual inspections on the structure, the extent of the damage inside the concrete is often already significant. Corrosion caused by carbonation often leads to severe discoloration of the surface or even large-area spalling of the concrete cover. In contrast, chloride-induced corrosion is usually difficult to observe visually, but can cause much more serious damage in less time. The effect occurs locally and can lead to weakening of the cross-section of the reinforcement. This, in turn, can cause sudden structural collapses without prior notice. Therefore, it is important to investigate whether there is protection against corrosion of the reinforcement in the concrete and to detect active corrosion in the structure at an early stage. In the meanwhile, various non-destructive and minimally invasive testing methods are available to evaluate the resistance to penetration of corrosion-promoting pollutants and to detect active corrosion. In this paper, a bridge crossing the river Regen (Germany) is used as a case-study to demonstrate how the information obtained applying different testing methods can be combined and evaluated in the context of structural reassessments. Both the results of the permeability testing (Torrent tester) and the electrical resistance measurement (Wenner probe) are considered, as well as active corrosion areas are localized using the half-cell potential mapping combined with the concrete cover measurement with the eddy current method and ground penetrating radar (GPR). The results are evaluated using drill cores and in addition laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) was applied to obtain information about possible ion transport in the concrete. T2 - EUROSTRUCT 2021 - 1st Conference of the European Association on Quality Control of Bridges and Structures - EUROSTRUCT CY - Padova, Italy DA - 30.08.2021 KW - Nondestructive testing KW - Corrosion KW - Bridge KW - Durability assessment KW - Civil engineering PY - 2021 AN - OPUS4-53222 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER -