TY - JOUR A1 - Küttenbaum, Stefan A1 - Braml, T. A1 - Taffe, A. A1 - Keßler, S. A1 - Maack, Stefan T1 - Reliability assessment of existing structures using results of nondestructive testing N2 - Making optimal decisions about the reliability of existing structures requires that the information used in assessment adequately represents the properties and the condition of the structures. The knowledge gap regarding a structure to be assessed can be successively filled by individually purposeful observations on site. This paper gives an overview of an approach for utilizing nondestructively gathered measurement results in reliability assessment of existing structures. An essential part of measurement-based stochastic modeling of basic variables is the calculation of measurement uncertainties, which serves to establish confidence in measurement, to ensure the comparability of unambiguously expressed measurement results, and to quantify the quality of the measured information. Regarding the current discourse on how to treat information collected on-site in the context of assessment, the authors recommend that measurement uncertainty becomes an uncertainty component mandatorily to be represented in measurement-based stochastic models. The main steps of the proposed concept are presented, and the advantages of its application are emphasized by means of a prestressed concrete bridge as case study. The bridge is assessed regarding the serviceability limit state decompression using ultrasonic and radar data measured at the structure. KW - Bridge KW - Measurement uncertainty KW - Prestressed concrete KW - Stochastic modeling KW - Probabilistic methods PY - 2021 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-529927 DO - https://doi.org/10.1002/suco.202100226 SN - 1751-7648 VL - 22 IS - 5 SP - 2895 EP - 2915 PB - John Wiley & Sons Ltd CY - Oxford AN - OPUS4-52992 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Bühling, Benjamin A1 - Maack, Stefan A1 - Schweitzer, T. A1 - Strangfeld, Christoph T1 - Enhancing the spectral signatures of ultrasonic fluidic transducer pulses for improved time-of-flight measurements N2 - Air-coupled ultrasonic (ACU) testing has proven to be a valuable method for increasing the speed in non-destructive ultrasonic testing and the investigation of sensitive specimens. A major obstacle to implementing ACU methods is the significant signal power loss at the air–specimen and transducer–air interfaces. The loss between transducer and air can be eliminated by using recently developed fluidic transducers. These transducers use pressurized air and a natural flow instability to generate high sound power signals. Due to this self-excited flow instability, the individual pulses are dissimilar in length, amplitude, and phase. These amplitude and angle modulated pulses offer the great opportunity to further increase the signal-to-noise ratio with pulse compression methods. In practice, multi-input multi-output (MIMO) setups reduce the time required to scan the specimen surface, but demand high pulse discriminability. By applying envelope removal techniques to the individual pulses, the pulse discriminability is increased allowing only the remaining phase information to be targeted for analysis. Finally, semi-synthetic experiments are presented to verify the applicability of the envelope removal method and highlight the suitability of the fluidic transducer for MIMO setups. KW - Air-coupled ultrasound KW - Fluidics KW - Signal processing KW - Pulse compression KW - MIMO KW - Hilbert transform PY - 2022 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-537853 DO - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ultras.2021.106612 SN - 0041-624X VL - 119 SP - 1 EP - 12 PB - Elsevier B.V. CY - Amsterdam, Netherlands AN - OPUS4-53785 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Bühling, Benjamin A1 - Maack, Stefan A1 - Schönsee, Eric A1 - Schweitzer, Thorge A1 - Strangfeld, Christoph T1 - Acoustic and flow data of fluidic and piezoelectric ultrasonic transducers N2 - This data article presents characteristic acoustic and flow data of a fluidic ultrasonic transducer as well as acoustic data of a commercial piezoelectric ultrasonic transducer used in non-destructive testing for civil engineering. The flow data has been acquired using hot-wire anemometry and a Pitot tube. The three-dimensional acoustic data of both devices has been acquired using a calibrated microphone. The distribution of characteristic acoustic properties of both transducers are extracted and given in addition to the raw data. The data presented in the article will be a valuable source for reference and validation, both for developing fluidic and alternate ultrasound generation technologies. Furthermore, they will give additional insight into the acoustic-flow interaction phenomena of high speed switching devices. This article is accompanying the paper Experimental Analysis of the Acoustic Field of an Ultrasonic Pulse Induced by a Fluidic Switch (Bühling et al., 2021) published in The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, where the data is interpreted in detail and the rationale for characteristic sound properties of the fluidic transducer are given. KW - Ultrasound KW - Non-destructive testing KW - Air-coupled ultrasound KW - Fluidics KW - Acoustic-flow interaction KW - Piezoelectric transducer PY - 2021 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-531308 DO - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dib.2021.107280 VL - 38 SP - 1 EP - 8 PB - Elsevier CY - Amsterdam AN - OPUS4-53130 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Bühling, Benjamin A1 - Küttenbaum, Stefan A1 - Maack, Stefan A1 - Strangfeld, Christoph T1 - Development of an Accurate and Robust Air-Coupled Ultrasonic Time-of-Flight Measurement Technique N2 - Ultrasonic time-of-flight (ToF) measurements enable the non-destructive characterization of material parameters as well as the reconstruction of scatterers inside a specimen. The time-consuming and potentially damaging procedure of applying a liquid couplant between specimen and transducer can be avoided by using air-coupled ultrasound. However, to obtain accurate ToF results, the waveform and travel time of the acoustic signal through the air, which are influenced by the ambient conditions, need to be considered. The placement of microphones as signal receivers is restricted to locations where they do not affect the sound field. This study presents a novel method for in-air ranging and ToF determination that is non-invasive and robust to changing ambient conditions or waveform variations. The in-air travel time was determined by utilizing the azimuthal directivity of a laser Doppler vibrometer operated in refracto-vibrometry (RV) mode. The time of entry of the acoustic signal was determined using the autocorrelation of the RV signal. The same signal was further used as a reference for determining the ToF through the specimen in transmission mode via cross-correlation. The derived signal processing procedure was verified in experiments on a polyamide specimen. Here, a ranging accuracy of <0.1 mm and a transmission ToF accuracy of 0.3μs were achieved. Thus, the proposed method enables fast and accurate non-invasive ToF measurements that do not require knowledge about transducer characteristics or ambient conditions. KW - Air-coupled ultrasound KW - Laser Doppler vibrometer KW - Refracto-vibrometry KW - Acousto-optic effect KW - Time-of-flight measurements KW - In-air ranging KW - Non-destructive testing PY - 2022 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-544711 DO - https://doi.org/10.3390/s22062135 VL - 22 IS - 6 SP - 1 EP - 17 PB - MDPI CY - Basel, Switzerland AN - OPUS4-54471 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Küttenbaum, Stefan A1 - Maack, Stefan A1 - Braml, T. A1 - Taffe, A. A1 - Strübing, T. T1 - Bewertung von Bestandsbauwerken mit gemessenen Daten - Teil 2: Berechnung der Tragwerkszuverlässigkeit unter Einbeziehung der ZfP-Messergebnisse T1 - Reassessment of existing structures based on measured data - Part 2: Structural reliability analyses using NDT results N2 - Durch die Einbeziehung von gemessenen Daten bei der Bewertung von bestehenden Bauwerken können Unsicherheiten bei der Beurteilung des Tragverhaltens reduziert werden, ohne das normative Zuverlässigkeitsniveau einzuschränken. Informationen sind die wesentliche Grundlage für die Analyse der Zuverlässigkeit von Tragwerken. Umso wichtiger ist die Kenntnis über die Präzision und die Richtigkeit der verwendeten Informationen. Aus messtechnischer Sicht kann ein Messwert, dem keine Messunsicherheit beigeordnet wurde, als wertlos erachtet werden. Liegt ein vollständig dokumentiertes Messergebnis vor, so ist die Qualität der gemessenen Information bekannt und deren Vergleichbarkeit gewährleistet. In diesem Beitrag wird am Beispiel einer Spannbetonbrücke und zweier Grenzzustände gezeigt, wie Messergebnisse aus der zerstörungsfreien Prüfung in probabilistische Nachweise von Bestandsbauwerken einfließen können und welche Auswirkungen die Implementierung von gemessenen Daten bei der Bewertung von Bestandsbauwerken haben kann. N2 - Every decision about the reliability of a structure is associated with uncertainties. The reassessment of existing structures remains a major challenge. The decisive difference compared to the design of new structures is the possibility and necessity to collect individual information about the actual condition and properties of the structure. Such knowledge should be appreciated in the reassessment in order to reduce uncertainties and increase the validity of the results. Reliability analyses using measured data require the comparability of measurement results and the evaluation of the quality of the measured information. Both requirements can be met by adequate measurement uncertainty considerations. Besides, the destructive interventions necessary for the measurements should be kept to a minimum. This paper shows how non-destructively gathered measurement results can be incorporated into probabilistic reassessments and which effects the implementation of measured data can have when evaluating existing structures, using a prestressed concrete bridge as a case-study. KW - Nachrechnung KW - Zerstörungsfreie Prüfung KW - Zuverlässigkeitsanalyse KW - Messung KW - Spannbetonbrücke PY - 2021 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-519480 DO - https://doi.org/10.1002/best.202000087 SN - 0005-9900 SN - 1437-1006 VL - 116 IS - 3 SP - 183 EP - 199 PB - Ernst & Sohn CY - Berlin AN - OPUS4-51948 LA - deu AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Maack, Stefan A1 - Küttenbaum, Stefan A1 - Epple, Niklas A1 - Aligholizadeh, M. T1 - Die Ultraschall-Echomethode – von der Messung zur bautechnischen Kenngröße T1 - Ultrasonic Echo Method - Deriving structural parameters from measured values N2 - Zerstörungsfreie Prüfverfahren liefern wichtige Informationen zur Beurteilung von Bauwerken. Mit ihnen können Materialeigenschaften bestimmt oder die innere Struktur von Bauteilen beschrieben werden. Für letzteres werden in der Regel Volumenverfahren angewandt. Einen besonderen Stellenwert haben in der Praxis die Radar- und die Ultraschall-Echoverfahren. Ihre Anwendung erfordert lediglich eine einseitige Zugänglichkeit zum Bauteil. Zudem lassen sich zahlreiche unterschiedliche Prüfaufgaben lösen. Zum Stand der Technik gehören beispielsweise die Ortung von Bewehrung und Spannkanälen, die Bestimmung der Dicke von Bauteilen oder die Fehlerlokalisierung. In diesem Beitrag wird gezeigt, wie mithilfe von Ultraschall-Echomessungen gesammelte Messwerte in ein quantitatives Messergebnis überführt werden können, das wiederum in ingenieurtechnische Berechnungen einfließen kann. Einleitend werden die Prüfmethode und die Messtechnik erläutert. Anschließend wird das Vorgehen von der Auswertung der Messergebnisse bis zur Bestimmung der bautechnischen Kenngröße – Bauteildicke – gezeigt. Abschließend wird die Methodik an einem Referenzprüfkörper aus Polyamid demonstriert und den Ergebnissen von Messungen an Beton gegenübergestellt. KW - Zerstörungsfreie Prüfung KW - Ultraschall-Echoverfahren KW - Messunsicherheit KW - Bildgebende Darstellung KW - Schallgeschwindigkeit PY - 2021 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-521113 DO - https://doi.org/10.1002/best.202000091 VL - 116 IS - 3 SP - 200 EP - 211 PB - Ernst & Sohn AN - OPUS4-52111 LA - deu AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Bühling, Benjamin A1 - Strangfeld, Christoph A1 - Maack, Stefan A1 - Schweitzer, T. T1 - Experimental analysis of the acoustic field of an ultrasonic pulse induced by a fluidic switch N2 - Ultrasonic inspection is a common tool for non-destructive testing in civil engineering (NDT-CE). Currently, transducers are coupled directly to the specimen surface, which makes the inspection time-consuming. Air-coupled ultrasound (ACU) transducers are more time-efficient but need a high pressure amplitude as the impedance mismatch between the air and the concrete is high and large penetration depth is needed for the inspection. Current approaches aim at eliminating the impedance mismatch between the transducer and the air to gain amplitude; however, they hardly fulfill the NDT-CE requirements. In this study, an alternative approach for ultrasound generation is presented: the signal is generated by a fluidic switch that rapidly injects a mass flow into the ambience. The acoustic field, the flow field, and their interaction are investigated. It is shown that the signal has dominant frequencies in the range of 35–60 kHz, and the amplitude is comparable to that of a commercial ACU transducer. KW - Air-coupled ultrasound KW - Non-destructive testing KW - Ultrasonic transducer KW - Acoustic-flow interaction PY - 2021 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-523862 DO - https://doi.org/10.1121/10.0003937 VL - 149 IS - 4 SP - 2150 EP - 2158 AN - OPUS4-52386 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Küttenbaum, Stefan A1 - Braml, T. A1 - Heinze, M. A1 - Kainz, C. A1 - Keuser, M. A1 - Kotz, P. A1 - Lechner, T. A1 - Maack, Stefan A1 - Reinke, K.-D. A1 - Schulze, S. A1 - Soukup, A. A1 - Stettner, C. A1 - Taffe, A. A1 - Wöstmann, Jens T1 - Guideline on NDT-supported reliability assessment of existing structures - Current developments in Germany N2 - Information about an existing structure can be collected at certain costs to evaluate the reliability and condition as realistically as necessary. This information can be relevant or irrelevant, true or biased, precise or imprecise. The incorporation of relevant and quality-assessed measured information into reliability reassessment offers the chance to extend remaining lifetimes and support decision making about optimal actions or maintenance strategies. This paper shows recent developments in a national research project that aims to produce a guideline on the NDT-based, structure-specific modification of partial safety factors. The general methodology, results from recalculations according to the Eurocodes and metrologically solvable testing tasks relevant in the recalculation of the concrete bridges are shown and compared with the non-destructive testing methods applicable to concrete bridges. A case study is used to demonstrate that as-built drawings, in this case of the positions of tendons and shear reinforcement, can be verified using the radar method. KW - Non-destructive testing KW - Concrete bridges KW - Partial safety factor modification PY - 2023 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-584862 DO - https://doi.org/10.1002/cepa.2168 SN - 2509-7075 VL - 6 IS - 5 SP - 537 EP - 543 PB - Ernst & Sohn CY - Berlin AN - OPUS4-58486 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Bühling, Benjamin A1 - Maack, Stefan A1 - Strangfeld, Christoph T1 - Fluidic Ultrasound Generation for Non‐Destructive Testing N2 - AbstractAir‐coupled ultrasonic testing (ACU) is a pioneering technique in non‐destructive testing (NDT). While contact testing and fluid immersion testing are standard methods in many applications, the adoption of ACU is progressing slowly, especially in the low ultrasonic frequency range. A main reason for this development is the difficulty of generating high amplitude ultrasonic bursts with equipment that is robust enough to be applied outside a laboratory environment. This paper presents the fluidic ultrasonic transducer as a solution to this challenge. This novel aeroacoustic source uses the flow instability of a sonic jet in a bistable fluidic switch to generate ultrasonic bursts up to 60 kHz with a mean peak pressure of 320 Pa. The robust design allows operation in adverse environments, independent of the operating fluid. Non‐contact through‐transmission experiments are conducted on four materials and compared with the results of conventional transducers. For the first time, it is shown that the novel fluidic ultrasonic transducer provides a suitable acoustic signal for NDT tasks and has potential of furthering the implementation of ACU in industrial applications.This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved KW - Aeroacoustics KW - Air-coupled ultrasound KW - Fluidics KW - Harsh environment KW - Laser Doppler vibrometer KW - Non-destructive testing PY - 2024 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-594273 DO - https://doi.org/10.1002/adma.202311724 SN - 0935-9648 SP - 1 EP - 14 PB - Wiley AN - OPUS4-59427 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Gebauer, D. A1 - Gutiérrez, R, A1 - Marx, S. A1 - Butler, M. A1 - Grahl, K. A1 - Thiel, T. A1 - Maack, Stefan A1 - Küttenbaum, Stefan A1 - Pirskawetz, Stephan A1 - Breit, W. A1 - Schickert, M. A1 - Krüger, M. T1 - Interrelated dataset of rebound numbers, ultrasonic pulse velocities and compressive strengths of drilled concrete cores from an existing structure and new fabricated concrete cubes N2 - Two test series were examined using nondestructive measuring methods by six independent laboratories before determining their compressive strength. The nondestructive test methods used were the rebound hammer and ultrasonic pulse velocity measurement. Two types of geometries were investigated: drilled cores and cubes. The measurement procedure for each of these datasets is conditioned to the geometry and is therefore different. The first series consists of 20 drilled cores (approximately diameter/height = 10 cm/20 cm) from the 55-year-old Lahntal Viaduct near Limburg, Germany. After preparation in the first laboratory, the lateral surface of the drilled cores was tested with the rebound hammer using a given pattern. Every laboratory tested every drilled core at different locations. Ultrasonic measurements in transmission were performed repeatedly at predefined points on the flat surfaces of the specimen. The second series consisted of 25 newly manufactured concrete cubes of a mix with a target concrete strength class of C30/37. The edge length was 15 cm. Each laboratory received five specimens of this test series. Thus, contrary to the first series, each specimen was tested by only one laboratory. Two side faces of each cube were tested with the rebound hammer. In addition, ultrasonic measurements were performed by one laboratory. The time of flight was measured between the tested side faces of the rebound hammer at different positions. For both series, rebound hammers were used to determine the R-value as well as the Q-value. The rebound hammer models within the laboratories were always the same, while they differed between the laboratories. The ultrasonic measurements took place with different measurement systems and couplants. Finally, both specimen series were tested destructively for compressive strength. The dataset contains the raw data summarized in tabular form. In addition, relevant calculated data are included in some cases. For the ultrasonic measurements, the time of flight has already been converted into the ultrasonic velocity. Besides, in addition to the raw data of the compressive strength test (force, weight, and geometry values), the calculated compressive strengths and densities are also provided. KW - Nondestructive testing KW - Ultra sound KW - Rebound hammer KW - Existing structure KW - Civil engineering PY - 2023 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-574655 DO - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dib.2023.109201 SN - 2352-3409 VL - 48 IS - 109201 SP - 1 EP - 13 PB - Elsevier Inc. AN - OPUS4-57465 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER -