TY - CONF A1 - Völker, Tobias T1 - Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy for Concrete Analysis: Applications and Practical Benefits N2 - Reinforced concrete structures are exposed not only to mechanical loads but also to chemical degradation, which can significantly impact their longevity and performance. Effective assessment and maintenance require a detailed understanding of the ingress of harmful species, such as chlorides or sulfates. Traditional analysis methods, like wet chemical analysis of drill dust or ground core samples, often require homogenization leading to the loss of crucial spatial information in sub-millimeter regions such as localized high concentrations of elements, e.g. in cracks. Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) offers a cutting-edge solution, providing rapid, multi-element analysis with high spatial resolution from micrometer to millimeter scales. LIBS is capable of detecting both light and heavy elements, making it a powerful tool for detailed concrete analysis. Despite its clear advantages, LIBS is not commonly used in civil engineering. This presentation will showcase practical examples demonstrating the effectiveness and advantages of LIBS in concrete analysis, highlighting real-world applications provided by members of the “LIBS” subcommittee of the technical committee “Civil-Engineering” of the German Society for Non-Destructive Testing (DGZfP). Key examples will be discussed, including measurements from car parks or bridges, alongside an introduction to the newly released DGZfP leaflet B14 providing guidelines for the quantitative determination of chlorine content in concrete by LIBS. Furthermore, prospective applications of LIBS including material identification and classification for concrete recycling, and other emerging uses in civil engineering, will also be presented, showcasing the versatility and future potential of this technology. T2 - Conference on durability of building materials and systems in the transportation infrastructure CY - Mendrisio, Switzerland DA - 22.03.2025 KW - LIBS KW - Spectroscopy KW - Concrete KW - Structural Diagnostics PY - 2025 AN - OPUS4-62822 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Dalichow, Dirk T1 - Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) for the chemical investigation of concrete- Status of practical application and regulations in Germany N2 - The assessment and maintenance of reinforced concrete structures depends largely on knowledge of the chloride content and chloride ingress. Common methods are the wet chemical analysis of drill dust or powder from ground drill core segments. However, due to the homogenization process, this approach often fails to detect locally elevated chloride levels. A state-of-the-art alternative method is laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS), which offers rapid analysis and the possibility of detecting several chemical elements simultaneously. This method is particularly characterized by its ability to measure light elements such as hydrogen, carbon or sodium. The spatial resolution of LIBS is usually 0.25 mm but can be increased to 0.1 mm or less if required. BARG, is the first commercial building materials laboratory in Germany to use LIBS in practice. The current LIBS setup enables rapid, spatial quantification of the chlorine content and at the same time the creation of element maps that visually represent the distribution of essential elements in the concrete. This method can be used to localize areas of elevated chlorine content, particularly in cracks or near reinforcing bars. With the ability to analyze several elements simultaneously, LIBS can determine measurement points associated with the cement phase and, taking into account the water content, relate the measured contents directly to the cement mass. The detailed ingress profiles determined by LIBS provide essential data for the estimation of accurate chlorine diffusion coefficients, which are crucial for probabilistic lifetime predictions. The estimation of the carbon distribution enables the localization of carbonated regions and their effect on the chloride distribution. The possibility of quantitatively determining the sulfur distribution also indicates areas that are affected by a possible sulfate attack. The presentation uses practical examples to demonstrate the possibilities and advantages of the LIBS method. In addition, the newly published leaflet B14 of the German Society for Non-Destructive Testing (DGZfP) will be presented, which describes the use of LIBS for the quantitative determination of chloride content in concrete. T2 - ICCRRR 2024 CY - Cape Town, South Africa DA - 04.11.2024 KW - Concrete KW - Chloride KW - Corrosion KW - Repair KW - Maintenance PY - 2024 AN - OPUS4-62481 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Wilsch, Gerd T1 - Laser induced breakdown spectroscopy to investigate the chemical composition of concrete N2 - Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) is a spectroscopic method for detecting the chemical composition of optically accessible surfaces. In principle, the measurement of all elements of the periodic table is possible. System calibrations allow the quantification of element concentrations. In combination with scanner systems, the two-dimensional element distribution can be determined. Even rough surfaces can be measured by online adjustment of the laser focus. To detect element ingress into the concrete, typically cores are taken, cut in half, and LIBS measurements are performed on the cross-section. The high spatial resolution as well as the simultaneous multi-element analysis enables a separate evaluation of the binder-matrix and aggregates. Therefore, the element concentrations can be determined directly related to the cement paste. LIBS measurements are applicable in the laboratory, on-site and also over a distance of several meters. Common applications include the investigation of material deterioration due to the ingress of harmful ions and their interaction in porous building materials. LIBS is able to provide precise input parameters for simulation and modelling of the remaining lifetime of a structure. Besides the identification of materials, also their composition can be determined on hardened concrete, such as the type of cement or type of aggregate. This also involves the identification of environmentally hazardous elements contained in concrete. Another possible application is the detection of the composition of material flows during dismantling. Non-contact NDT for “difficult to assess” structures as an example application through safety glass or in combination with robotics and automation are also possible. This work presents the state of the art concerning LIBS investigations on concrete by showing exemplary laboratory and on-site applications. T2 - NDE NucCon 2023 CY - Espoo, Finland DA - 25.01.2023 KW - LIBS KW - Concrete PY - 2023 AN - OPUS4-57323 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 - Niederleithinger, Ernst T1 - Introduction to BAM and ultrasonics (and GPR) in civil engineering N2 - This presentation gives anoverview about BAM, its department 8 and in particular its division 8.2 "NDT methods for civil engineering". The focus is on methods and applications with a geoscientific context, such as methods adopted from geophysics or NDT method applied in a geological environment. T2 - GTK (Geological Survey of Finland) Semninar CY - Espoo, Finland DA - 20.01.2023 KW - NDT KW - Ultrasound KW - Radar KW - Geophysics KW - Concrete PY - 2023 AN - OPUS4-56911 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Niederleithinger, Ernst T1 - Nuclear concrete, and how to live with it more easy using NDE N2 - This keynote presentation compiles the specialities of civil engineering compared to other disciplines, of NDT in civil engineering compared to other filds of NDT and the specific challenges of applications in the nuclear energy and disposal sector. T2 - NucCon 2023 CY - Espoo, Finland DA - 25.01.2023 KW - NDT KW - Concrete KW - Nuclear PY - 2023 AN - OPUS4-56912 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Maack, Stefan A1 - Niederleithinger, Ernst T1 - Imaging of Ultrasonic Echo Measurements for Reconstruction of Technical Data of Bridges – Possibilities, Limitations and Outlook N2 - When reassessing existing concrete bridges, the challenge is often to obtain missing or incomplete information on the internal structure. In particular, the number and position of the existing reinforcement as well as the geometric dimensions of the components are of interest. Non-destructive testing methods, like radar or ultrasound, which work on the basis of the pulse-echo method, have been established for this purpose, as they only require access to the component from one side. The measurement data recorded on the structure require pre-processing to be able to reproduce the internal structure geometrically accurately. Besides different steps of data processing, the geometrical reconstruction of the measured data based on the Synthetic Aperture Focusing Technique (SAFT) is state of the art today. In this paper, the technical possibilities of the ultrasonic echo method are presented based on measurements in the laboratory and on a real bridge structure. The precision of the reconstruction and its limitations are shown. In addition to the state of the art SAFT technique, open questions and the latest research approaches, such as imaging by reverse time migration (RTM) including initial results are discussed. T2 - 13th German-Japanese Bridge Symposium CY - Osaka, Japan DA - 29.08.2023 KW - Bridge KW - Non destructive testing and evaluation KW - Concrete KW - Validation PY - 2023 AN - OPUS4-58328 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Niederleithinger, Ernst T1 - X-rays without X-rays: Can muon tomography provide pictures from within concrete objects? N2 - Until the 1980s radiography was used to inspect civil structures 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. Meanwhile, 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 when applied to reinforced or prestressed concrete inspection. Muon tomography has received much attention recently. Muons are particles generated naturally by cosmic rays in the upper atmosphere and pose no risk to humans. Novel detectors and tomographic imaging algorithms have opened new fields of application, mainly in the nuclear sector, but also in spectacular cases such as the Egyptian pyramids. 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 have been at least of similar quality compared to ultrasonic and radar imaging, potentially even better. Recently, the research was expanded to more realistic testing problems such as the detection of voids in certain structural elements. However, before practical implementation, more robust, mobile, and affordable detectors would be required as well as user-Friendly imaging and simulation software. T2 - ISNT NDE 2023 CY - Pune, India DA - 07.12.2023 KW - Muon tomography KW - Concrete KW - Civil engineering PY - 2023 AN - OPUS4-59347 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Niederleithinger, Ernst T1 - ridge Monitoring by Ultrasonic Coda Wave Interferometry N2 - The built infrastructure ages and requires regular inspection and, when in doubt, monitoring. To ensure that older concrete bridges showing signs of deterioration can be used safely, several innovative monitoring tools have been introduced, including but not limited to optical, fiber-optic, or acoustic emission techniques. However, there are gaps in the portfolio. A sensing technique that covers a wide range of damage scenarios and larger volumes, while still being sensitive and specific, would be beneficial. For about 15 years, research has been conducted on ultrasonic monitoring of concrete structures that goes beyond the traditional ultrasonic pulse velocity test (PV test), mostly using a very sensitive data evaluation technique called coda wave interferometry. At BAM we have developed sensors and instrumentation specifically for this method. We have instrumented a 70-year-old, severely damaged prestressed concrete bridge in Germany in addition to a commercial monitoring system. We have now collected data for almost 3 years. We can show that we can provide information about the stress distribution in the bridge. We have also been able to confirm that there has been no significant additional damage to the bridge since the installation. T2 - ISNT NDE 2023 CY - Pune, India DA - 07.12.2023 KW - Coda wave interferometry KW - Structural health monitoring KW - Ultrasound KW - Concrete KW - Bridges PY - 2023 AN - OPUS4-59346 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Völker, Tobias T1 - Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy A Tool for Imaging the Chemical Composition of Concrete N2 - One of the most common causes of damage is the ingress of harmful ions into the concrete, which can lead to deterioration processes and affect structural performance. Therefore, the increasingly aging infrastructure is regularly inspected to assess durability. Regular chemical analysis can be useful to determine the extent and evolution of ion ingress and to intervene in a timely manner. This could prove more economical than extensive repairs for major damage, particularly for critical infrastructure. In addition to already established elemental analysis techniques in civil engineering such as potentiometric titration or X-ray fluorescence analysis, laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) can provide further important complementary information and benefits. The possibilities of LIBS are demonstrated using the example of a drill core taken from a parking garage. T2 - 6th International Conference on Concrete Repair, Rehabilitation and Retrofitting CY - Cape Town, South Africa DA - 03.10.2022 KW - LIBS KW - Concrete KW - Cement KW - Chlorine PY - 2022 AN - OPUS4-56061 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER -