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 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-563170 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 -