TY - JOUR A1 - Gottlieb, Cassian A1 - Bohling, Christian A1 - Wilsch, Gerd T1 - New possibilities for concrete analysis 4.0 with the Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) N2 - In civil engineering the damage assessment of concrete infrastructures is an important task to monitor and ensure the estimated life-time. The aging of concrete is caused by different damage processes like the chloride induced pitting corrosion of the reinforcement. The penetration depth and the concentration of harmful species are crucial factors in the damage assessment. As a highly cost and time-consuming standard procedure, the analysis of concrete drill cores or drilling by wet-chemistry is widely used. This method provides element concentration to the total mass as aggregates and binder are homogenized. In order to provide a method that is capable to detect the element concentration regarding the cement content only, the laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) will be presented. The LIBS method uses a focused pulsed laser on the sample surface to ablate material. The high-power density and the laser-material interaction causes a laser-induced plasma that emits elemental and molecular line emission due to energy transition of the excited species in the plasma during the cooling phase. As each element provides element-specific line emission, it is in principle possible to detect any element on the periodic table (spectroscopic fingerprint) with one laser shot. In combination with a translation stage the sample under investigation can be spatially resolved using a scan raster with a resolution up to 100 µm (element mapping). Due to the high spatial resolution, the element distribution and the heterogeneity of the concrete can be evaluated. By using chemometrics the non-relevant aggregates can be excluded from the data set and the element concentration can be quantified and referred to a specific solid phase like the binding matrix (cement) only. In order to analyze transport processes like diffusion and migration the twodimensional element distributions can provide deep insight into the transport through the pore space and local enrichments of elements. As LIBS is a multi-elemental method it is also possible to compare the ingress and transport process of different elements like Cl, Na, K, S, C, and Li simultaneously and evaluate cross-correlations between the different ions. Furthermore, the element mapping allows to visualize the transport along cracks. This work will show the state of the art in terms of hardware and software for an automated LIBS system as well as different application for a concrete analysis 4.0. Focus will be the application of LIBS for a fast concrete analysis. T2 - SMAR 2019 CY - Potsdam, Germany DA - 27.08.2019 KW - Damage KW - LIBS KW - Concrete KW - Mapping KW - Chlorine PY - 2020 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-517282 UR - https://www.ndt.net/?id=24963 SN - 1435-4934 VL - 25 IS - 1 SP - 1 EP - 8 PB - NDT.net CY - Kirchwald AN - OPUS4-51728 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Schweitzer, T. A1 - Hörmann, M. A1 - Bühling, Benjamin A1 - Bobusch, B. T1 - Switching Action of a Bistable Fluidic Amplifier for Ultrasonic Testing N2 - Air-coupled ultrasonic testing is widely used in the industry for the non-destructive testing of compound materials. It provides a fast and efficient way to inspect large concrete civil infrastructures for damage that might lead to catastrophic failure. Due to the large penetration depths required for concrete structures, the use of traditional piezoelectric transducer requires high power electric systems. In this study, a novel fluidic transducer based on a bistable fluidic amplifier is investigated. Previous experiments have shown that the switching action of the device produces a high-power broadband ultrasonic signal. This study will provide further insight into the switching behaviour of the fluidic switch. Therefore, parametric CFD simulations based on compressible supersonic RANS simulations were performed, varying the inlet pressure and velocity profiles for the control flow. Switching times are analyzed with different methods, and it was found that These are mostly independent of the slope of the velocity profile at the control port. Furthermore, it was found that an inversely proportional relationship exists between flow velocity in the throat and the switching time. The results agree with the theoretical background established by experimental studies that can be found in the literature. KW - Ultrasound KW - Non-destructive testing KW - Fluidic devices KW - Computational fluid dynamics KW - Concrete KW - Bistable fluidic amplifier PY - 2021 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-525115 DO - https://doi.org/10.3390/fluids6050171 SN - 2311-5521 VL - 6 IS - 5 SP - 171 PB - MDPI CY - Basel, Switzerland AN - OPUS4-52511 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Krankenhagen, Rainer A1 - Zirker, Stefan A1 - Joniertz, Florian T1 - Determination of thermal parameters of concrete by active thermographic measurements N2 - The knowledge of the thermal parameters of a particular concrete is essential for thermal design of a building, but also could help to identify and assess the state of a concrete structure. Active thermography has the potential to be applied onsite and to provide a fast investigation of thermal properties. In this work, three different concrete samples were investigated by active thermography in reflection and in transmission setup. It was found that this method yields the same results without direct contact as the Transient Plane Source (TPS) method as an established inspection tool. KW - Concrete KW - Effusivity KW - Thermal diffusivity KW - Photothermal KW - Thermography KW - Hot disc method KW - Parker method KW - Onsite inspection PY - 2022 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-543781 DO - https://doi.org/10.1007/s10921-022-00861-6 SN - 0195-9298 SN - 1573-4862 VL - 41 IS - 1 SP - 1 EP - 20 PB - Springer AN - OPUS4-54378 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Jablonka, Kevin Maik A1 - Ai, Qianxiang A1 - Al-Feghali, Alexander A1 - Badhwar, Shruti A1 - Bocarsly, Joshua D. A1 - Bran, Andres M. A1 - Bringuier, Stefan A1 - Brinson, L. Catherine A1 - Choudhary, Kamal A1 - Circi, Defne A1 - Cox, Sam A1 - de Jong, Wibe A. A1 - Evans, Matthew L. A1 - Gastellu, Nicolas A1 - Genzling, Jerome A1 - Gil, María Victoria A1 - Gupta, Ankur K. A1 - Hong, Zhi A1 - Imran, Alishba A1 - Kruschwitz, Sabine A1 - Labarre, Anne A1 - Lála, Jakub A1 - Liu, Tao A1 - Ma, Steven A1 - Majumdar, Sauradeep A1 - Merz, Garrett W. A1 - Moitessier, Nicolas A1 - Moubarak, Elias A1 - Mouriño, Beatriz A1 - Pelkie, Brenden A1 - Pieler, Michael A1 - Ramos, Mayk Caldas A1 - Ranković, Bojana A1 - Rodriques, Samuel G. A1 - Sanders, Jacob N. A1 - Schwaller, Philippe A1 - Schwarting, Marcus A1 - Shi, Jiale A1 - Smit, Berend A1 - Smith, Ben E. A1 - Van Herck, Joren A1 - Völker, Christoph A1 - Ward, Logan A1 - Warren, Sean A1 - Weiser, Benjamin A1 - Zhang, Sylvester A1 - Zhang, Xiaoqi A1 - Zia, Ghezal Ahmad Jan A1 - Scourtas, Aristana A1 - Schmidt, K. J. A1 - Foster, Ian A1 - White, Andrew D. A1 - Blaiszik, Ben T1 - 14 examples of how LLMs can transform materials science and chemistry: a reflection on a large language model hackathon N2 - Large-language models (LLMs) such as GPT-4 caught the interest of many scientists. Recent studies suggested that these models could be useful in chemistry and materials science. To explore these possibilities, we organized a hackathon. This article chronicles the projects built as part of this hackathon. Participants employed LLMs for various applications, including predicting properties of molecules and materials, designing novel interfaces for tools, extracting knowledge from unstructured data, and developing new educational applications. The diverse topics and the fact that working prototypes could be generated in less than two days highlight that LLMs will profoundly impact the future of our fields. The rich collection of ideas and projects also indicates that the applications of LLMs are not limited to materials science and chemistry but offer potential benefits to a wide range of scientific disciplines. KW - Large Language model KW - Hackathon KW - Concrete KW - Prediction KW - Inverse Design KW - Orchestration PY - 2023 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-589961 DO - https://doi.org/10.1039/d3dd00113j VL - 2 IS - 5 SP - 1233 EP - 1250 PB - Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) AN - OPUS4-58996 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Strangfeld, Christoph A1 - Klewe, Tim T1 - Comparison of the Calcium Carbide Method and Darr Drying to Quantify the Amount of Chemically Bound Water in Early Age Concrete N2 - Hydration is the exothermic reaction between anhydrous cement and water, which forms the solid cement matrix of concrete. Being able to evaluate the hydration is of high interest for the use of both conventional and more climate-friendly building materials. The experimental monitoring is based on temperature or moisture measurements. The first needs adiabatic conditions, which can only be achieved in laboratory. The latter is often measured comparing the weight of the material sample before and after oven drying, which is time-consuming. This study investigates the moisture content of two cement-based and two calcium sulphate based mixtures for the first 90 days by using the calcium carbide method and oven drying at 40 °C and 105 °C (Darr method). Thereby, the amount of chemically bound water is determined to derive the degree of hydration. The calcium carbide measurements highly coincide with oven drying at 40 °C. The calcium carbide method is therefore evaluated as a suitable alternative to the time-consuming Darr drying. The prompt results are seen as a remarkable advantage and can be obtained easily in laboratory as well as in the field. KW - Concrete KW - Hydration KW - Material moisture KW - Calcium carbide method KW - Bound water KW - Darr method KW - Oven drying KW - Chemisorption KW - Physisorption PY - 2022 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-564519 DO - https://doi.org/10.3390/ma15238422 VL - 15 IS - 23 SP - 1 EP - 16 PB - MDPI AN - OPUS4-56451 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Diewald, F. A1 - Epple, Niklas A1 - Kraenkel, T. A1 - Gehlen, C. A1 - Niederleithinger, Ernst T1 - Impact of External Mechanical Loads on Coda Waves in Concrete N2 - During their life span, concrete structures interact with many kinds of external mechanical loads. Most of these loads are considered in advance and result in reversible deformations. Nevertheless, some of the loads cause irreversible, sometimes unnoticed changes below the macroscopic scale depending on the type and dimension of the impact. As the functionality of concrete structures is often relevant to safety and society, their condition must be known and, therefore, assessed on a regular basis. Out of the spectrum of non-destructive monitoring methods, Coda Wave Interferometry using embedded ultrasonic sensors is one particularly sensitive technique to evaluate changes to heterogeneous media. However, there are various influences on Coda waves in concrete, and the interpretation of their superimposed effect is ambiguous. In this study, we quantify the relations of uniaxial compression and uniaxial tension on Coda waves propagating in normal concrete. We found that both the signal correlation of ultrasonic signals as well as their velocity variation directly reflect the stress change in concrete structures in a laboratory environment. For the linear elastic range up to 30% of the strength, we calculated a velocity variation of −0.97‰/MPa for compression and 0.33%/MPa for tension using linear regression. In addition, these parameters revealed even weak irreversible changes after removal of the load. Furthermore, we show the time-dependent effects of shrinkage and creep on Coda waves by providing the development of the signal parameters over time during half a year together with creep recovery. Our observations showed that time-dependent material changes must be taken into account for any comparison of ultrasonic signals that are far apart in time. The study’s results demonstrate how Coda Wave Interferometry is capable of monitoring stress changes and detecting even small-size microstructural changes. By indicating the stated relations and their separation from further impacts, e.g., temperature and moisture, we anticipate our study to contribute to the qualification of Coda Wave Interferometry for its application as an early-warning system for concrete structures. KW - Ultrasound KW - Coda Wave Interferometry (CWI) KW - Mechanical Load KW - Microstructure KW - Concrete PY - 2022 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-556878 DO - https://doi.org/10.3390/ma15165482 SN - 1996-1944 VL - 15 IS - 16 SP - 1 EP - 15 PB - MDPI AN - OPUS4-55687 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Chakraborty, J. A1 - Wang, Xin A1 - Stolinski, M. T1 - Damage Detection in Multiple RC Structures Based on Embedded Ultrasonic Sensors and Wavelet Transform N2 - This paper summarizes the results of research aimed at assessing cracks in reinforced concrete structures using embedded ultrasonic sensors. The diffuse ultrasonic waves were considered to evaluate the health status of the tested structures. There are different algorithms used to detect cracks in the structure, but most studies have been performed on benchmark reinforced concrete (RC) structures and in laboratory conditions. Since there were difficulties with the validity of Damage detection in real structures in the presence of environmental changes and noises, the application of advanced signal processing methods was necessary. Therefore, the wavelet transform was applied to process ultrasonic signals acquired from multiple civil structures. It is shown that the ultrasonic sensors with an applied wavelet transform algorithm on collected signals can successfully detect cracks in the laboratory as well as in a real environment. Experimental results showed a perfect match for detecting damage and quasi-static load in the presence of environmental changes. The results were confirmed with other techniques. In addition, designing an extra filter for removing noises can be avoided by using the applied algorithms. The obtained results confirmed that diffuse ultrasonic sensor methodology with the proposed algorithm is useful and effective in Monitoring real RC structures, and it is better than traditional techniques. KW - Ultrasound KW - Damage KW - Detection KW - Concrete KW - Wavelet PY - 2021 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-523089 DO - https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings11020056 VL - 11 IS - 2 SP - 56 PB - MDPI AN - OPUS4-52308 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Clauß, F. A1 - Epple, Niklas A1 - Ahrens, M. A. A1 - Niederleithinger, Ernst A1 - Mark, P. T1 - Comparison of Experimentally Determined Two-Dimensional Strain Fields and Mapped Ultrasonic Data Processed by Coda Wave Interferometry N2 - Due to the high sensitivity of coda waves to the smallest structural alterations such as strain, humidity or temperature changes, ultrasonic waves are a valid means to examine entire structures employing networks of ultrasonic transducers. In order to substantiate this ex ante assessment, the viability of measuring ultrasonic waves as a valid point of reference and inference for structural changes is to be further scrutinized in this work. In order to investigate the influence of mechanical strain on ultrasonic signals, a four-point bending test was carried out on a reinforced concrete beam at Ruhr University Bochum. Thus, measurements collected from a network of selected transducer pairings arranged across the central, shear-free segment of the test specimen, were correlated to their respective strain fields. Detected ultrasonic signals were evaluated employing Coda Wave Interferometry. Such analysis comprised the initial non-cracked state as well as later stages with incremental crack depth and quantity. It was to ascertain that the test specimen can in fact be qualitatively compartmentalized into areas of compression and tension identified via Relative Velocity Changes presented in Attribute Maps. However, since results did not entail a zero crossing, i.e., neither positive nor negative values were to be calculated, only relative changes in this work displayed staggered over the height of the object under test, are discussed. Under the given methodological premises, additional information is currently required to make quantitative assertions regarding this correlation of ultrasonic and strain results. This holds true for the comparability of the ultrasonic and strain results for both non-cracked and even the cracked state. KW - Digital image correlation KW - Fiber optic sensors KW - Coda Wave Interferometry KW - Ultrasound KW - Concrete PY - 2020 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-510501 DO - https://doi.org/10.3390/s20144023 SN - 1424-8220 VL - 20 IS - 14 SP - Paper 4023, 1 PB - MDPI CY - Basel AN - OPUS4-51050 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Niederleithinger, Ernst A1 - Gardner, S. A1 - Kind, Thomas A1 - Kaiser, R. A1 - Grunwald, Marcel A1 - Yang, G. A1 - Redmer, Bernhard A1 - Waske, Anja A1 - Mielentz, Frank A1 - Effner, Ute A1 - Köpp, Christian A1 - Clarkson, A. A1 - Thompson, F. A1 - Ryan, M. A1 - Mahon, D. T1 - Muon Tomography of the Interior of a Reinforced Concrete Block: First Experimental Proof of Concept N2 - Quality assurance and condition assessment of concrete structures is an important topic world-wide due to the aging infrastructure and increasing traffic demands. Common topics include, but are not limited to, localisation of rebar or tendon ducts, geometrical irregularities, cracks, voids, honeycombing or other flaws. Non-destructive techniques 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 up new fields of application, such as the investigation of freight containers. Muon imaging also has the potential to fill some of the gaps currently existing in concrete NDT. As a first step towards practical use 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. The data acquisition takes more time and signals contain more noise, but the images allowed to detect the same important features that are visible in conventional high energy X-ray tomography. In our experiment, we have shown that muon imaging has potential for concrete inspection. The next steps include the development of mobile detectors and optimising acquisition and imaging parameters. KW - Concrete KW - Muon KW - Radar KW - Ultrasound KW - X-ray PY - 2021 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-529974 DO - https://doi.org/10.1007/s10921-021-00797-3 VL - 40 IS - 3 SP - 1 EP - 14 PB - Springer Nature AN - OPUS4-52997 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Zhang, T. A1 - Sens-Schönfelder, C. A1 - Epple, Niklas A1 - Niederleithinger, Ernst T1 - Imaging of Small-Scale Heterogeneity and Absorption Using Adjoint Envelope Tomography: Results From Laboratory Experiments N2 - To complement the information provided by deterministic seismic imaging at length scales above a certain resolution limit we present the first application of adjoint envelope tomography (AET) to experimental data. AET uses the full envelopes of seismic records including scattered coda waves to obtain information about the distribution of absorption and small-scale heterogeneity which provide complementary information about the investigated medium. Being below the resolution limit this small-scale structure cannot be resolved by conventional tomography but still affects wave propagation by attenuating ballistic waves and generating scattered waves. Using ultrasound data from embedded sensors in a meter-sized concrete specimen we image the distribution of absorption and heterogeneity expressed by the intrinsic quality factor Q−1 and the fluctuation strength ɛ that characterizes the strength of the heterogeneity. The forward problem is solved by modeling the 2-D multiple nonisotropic scattering in an acoustic medium with spatially variable heterogeneity and attenuation using the Monte-Carlo method. Gradients for the model updates are obtained by convolution with the back-propagated envelope misfit using the adjoint formalism in analogy to full waveform inversion. We use a late coda time window to invert for absorption and an earlier time window to infer the distribution of heterogeneity. The results successfully locate an area of salt oncrete with increased scattering and concentric anomalies of intrinsic attenuation. The resolution test shows that the recovered anomalies constitute reasonable representations of internal structure of the specimen. KW - Ultrasound KW - Scattering KW - Tomography KW - Concrete KW - Heterogeneity PY - 2022 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-563163 DO - https://doi.org/10.1029/2022JB024972 SN - 2169-9313 VL - 127 IS - 11 SP - 1 EP - 21 PB - American Geophysical Union AN - OPUS4-56316 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 - 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 - 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 - Dominguez-Bureos, Marco A1 - Sens-Schönfelder, Christoph A1 - Niederleithinger, Ernst A1 - Hadziioannou, Céline T1 - Stress- and Time-dependent Variations of Elastic Properties for Integrity Assessment in a Reinforced Concrete Test Bridge N2 - In lab experiments, it has been observed that the stress–and time-dependent elastic properties of a complex material at a structural scale perform accordingly to its composition at a microstructural level. We seek complementary practices to the current wavefield-based non-destructive testing techniques to assess not only the integrity level of civil structures but also the microstructural elements that contribute to it. In this paper, we study the systematic evolution of elastic properties of concrete as an alternative to investigate the density of micro imperfections in an outdoor-conditioned concrete structure. We estimate 5-second relative velocity changes in four locations on a Test bridge subjected to the action of vertical impulsive sources, at different prestressing levels (dynamic effects at different static conditions). We describe the structure’s stress- and time-dependent elastic response by means of acoustoelastic effect and Slow-dynamic processes, respectively. We also estimate the conventional ultrasound pulse velocity and perform a cooperative integrity analysis of the structure using the three elastic phenomena. Our findings reveal: 1) The presence of soft microstructures and their orientation’s influence on the acoustoelastic effect and Slow-dynamics in field-conditioned concrete structures. 2) The relation of low ultrasound pulse velocities with high acoustoelastic effect and high magnitudes and variability of Slow-dynamics. 3) Different elastic behaviours on the north and south spans of the bridge, suggesting different heterogeneity levels on the analysed locations of the concrete beam. KW - Concrete KW - Ultrasound KW - Nonlinear KW - Elastic properties KW - Damage PY - 2025 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-640064 DO - https://doi.org/10.1007/s10921-025-01257-y SN - 0195-9298 VL - 44 IS - 4 SP - 1 EP - 16 PB - Springer Science and Business Media LLC AN - OPUS4-64006 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Ukrainczyk, Neven A1 - Bernard, Thomas A1 - Babaahmadi, Arezou A1 - Huang, Liming A1 - Zausinger, Christoph A1 - Soive, Anthony A1 - Bonnet, Stéphanie A1 - Georget, Fabien A1 - Mrak, Maruša A1 - Dolenec, Sabina A1 - Völker, Tobias A1 - Suraneni, Prannoy A1 - Wilson, William T1 - Test methods for chloride diffusivity of blended cement pastes: a review by RILEM TC 298-EBD N2 - The use of supplementary cementitious materials (SCM) is an important part of the roadmap for reducing CO2 emissions and extending the service life of reinforced concrete structures. To accelerate the adoption of SCMs, the RILEM Technical Committee 298-EBD evaluates scaled-down cement paste test methods to assess the effect of SCM on resistance to chloride and sulfate ingress and reactivity, which are critical to concrete durability. This review focuses on methods for measuring chloride diffusivity and is divided into four sections: diffusivity models and parameters, diffusion test methods (including NMR and chloride measurements), migration test methods and implications for future research. Key insights highlight the complexities of multi-species ionic and molecular diffusion/migration, including various binding interactions, and compares the different measurement methodologies. The review also addresses the test scale and aggregate effects, noting the pros and cons of testing at the paste, mortar, and concrete scales. The review underscores the need for further investigation into testing protocols and the influence of SCM on chloride diffusion, emphasizing that comprehensive testing across different scales provides complementary information for assessing durability performance. KW - Chloride ingress KW - Diffusion tests KW - Migration test KW - Cement paste KW - Concrete KW - Supplementary cementitious materials (SCM) PY - 2025 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-645889 DO - https://doi.org/10.1617/s11527-025-02809-4 SN - 1359-5997 VL - 58 IS - 10 SP - 1 EP - 35 PB - Springer Science and Business Media LLC AN - OPUS4-64588 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Kruschwitz, Sabine A1 - Munsch, Sarah Mandy A1 - Telong, Melissa A1 - Schmidt, Wolfram A1 - Bintz, Thilo A1 - Fladt, Matthias A1 - Stelzner, Ludwig T1 - The NMR core analyzing TOMograph: A multi-functional tool for non-destructive testing of building materials N2 - NMR is becoming increasingly popular for the investigation of building materials as it is a non-invasive technology that does not require any sample preparation nor causes damage to the material. Depending on the specific application it can offer insights into properties like porosity and spatial saturation degree as well as pore structure. Moreover it enables the determination of moisture transport properties and the (re-)distribution of internal moisture into different reservoirs or chemical phases upon damage and curing. However, as yet most investigations were carried out using devices originally either designed for geophysical applications or the analysis of rather homogeneous small scale (< 10 mL) samples. This paper describes the capabilities of an NMR tomograph, which has been specifically optimized for the investigation of larger, heterogeneous building material samples (diameters of up to 72 mm, length of up to 700 mm) with a high flexibility due to interchangeable coils allowing for a high SNR and short echo times (50 - 80 m s). KW - Fire spalling KW - Moisture transport KW - Concrete KW - Cement hydration KW - Sensitivity KW - Supplementary cementitous materials KW - Frost salt attack PY - 2023 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-573755 DO - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mrl.2023.03.004 SN - 2097-0048 VL - 3 IS - 3 SP - 207 EP - 219 PB - Elsevier B.V. AN - OPUS4-57375 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Bruno, Giovanni T1 - Brittle Materials in Mechanical Extremes N2 - The goal of the Special Issue “Brittle Materials in Mechanical Extremes” was to spark a discussion of the analogies and the differences between different brittle materials, such as, for instance, ceramics and concrete. Indeed, the contributions to the Issue spanned from construction materials (asphalt and concrete) to structural ceramics, reaching as far as ice. The data shown in the issue were obtained by advanced microstructural techniques (microscopy, 3D imaging, etc.) and linked to mechanical properties (and their changes as a function of aging, composition, etc.). The description of the mechanical behavior of brittle materials under operational loads, for instance, concrete and ceramics under very high temperatures, offered an unconventional viewpoint on the behavior of brittle materials. This is not at all exhaustive, but a way to pave the road for intriguing and enriching comparisons. KW - Microcracking KW - Ceramics KW - Concrete KW - Asphalt KW - Mechanicalproperties KW - Microstructure KW - Strength PY - 2020 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-514558 DO - https://doi.org/10.3390/ma13204610 VL - 13 IS - 20 SP - 4610 PB - MDPI CY - Basel AN - OPUS4-51455 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Jägle, Eva A1 - Tuladhar, Rujika A1 - Niederleithinger, Ernst A1 - Epple, Niklas A1 - Sanchez Trujillo, Camila Andrea A1 - Gehlen, Christoph A1 - Timothy, Jithender J. T1 - Evaluation of ultrasonic signals collected from laboratory concrete specimens: Preprocessing and analysis with coda wave interferometry N2 - Efficient maintenance of infrastructure relies on monitoring and assessment of its condition. New technologies and methods thereby enable a deeper understanding of the materials used and of the structures built. Coda Wave Interferometry (CWI) is currently explored for continuous monitoring of reinforced concrete structures as well as material testing. This ultrasound-based method is sensitive to even small material alterations and therefore suitable for the detection of initial damage stages. Herein, a step-by-step procedure for the evaluation of ultrasonic signals with CWI methods is presented. The described procedure is proposed for ultrasonic signals collected with embedded ultrasonic transducers with a center frequency of 50 kHz to 70 kHz from prism-shaped concrete specimen with dimensions of 400 mm x 100 mm x 100 mm. The raw ultrasonic signal, preprocessing and CWI analysis are described and influences of parameters within the analysis are discussed. The presented procedure allows systematic and comparable analysis of ultrasonic signals generated with similar conditions and therefore contributes to the application of CWI methods for structural health monitoring and material testing. KW - Ultrasound KW - Concrete KW - Coda wave interferometry KW - Structural health monitoring PY - 2026 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-656027 DO - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mex.2026.103811 SN - 2215-0161 VL - 16 SP - 1 EP - 19 PB - Elsevier B.V. AN - OPUS4-65602 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER -