TY - JOUR A1 - Colla, Camilla A1 - Krause, Martin A1 - Maierhofer, Christiane A1 - Höhberger, H.-J. A1 - Sommer, H. T1 - Combination of NDT techniques for site investigation of non-ballasted railway tracks N2 - Today's civil engineering NDT needs are for quantitative, fast to apply and easy to interpret methods. They are required on site both for evaluation of existing structures/infrastructure and for quality control in new construction. With this purpose, BAM has carried out in-situ feasibility studies, using radar, impact-echo and ultrasonic-echo methods. Two examples are given of their combined application on different railway slab–track constructions, using high frequency radar, scanning impact-echo and ultrasonic array methods. The aim was to evaluate limitations and advantages, comparability and complementarity of these methods. The on-site measurements demonstrated the possibility to investigate, with good accuracy via NDT, the bonding conditions between sleepers and slab, to locate voids and measure layer thickness. The acoustic and electromagnetic methods used, were found to be complementary. KW - Concrete KW - NDT KW - Impact echo KW - Ultrasonics KW - Radar KW - Railway PY - 2002 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/S0963-8695(01)00033-0 SN - 0963-8695 VL - 35 SP - 95 EP - 105 PB - Butterworth-Heinemann CY - Oxford AN - OPUS4-1858 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - GEN A1 - Grotelüschen, Bjarne A1 - Bühling, Benjamin T1 - Impact-Echo Dataset "IE Platte" N2 - This dataset contains raw data resulting from Impact-Echo measurements at the reference concrete block "IE Platte", located at BAM (German Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing). The specimen contains three polystyrene slabs and one polyethylene foil to act as reflectors. The specimen was produced in a three-step process. First, the base plate was cast. Second, the reflectors were taped to the base plate. Finally, the upper layer was cast on top of base plate and reflectors. A drawing is contained in the dataset. The Impact-Echo method is based on the excitation of the zero-group-velocity frequency of the first symmetric Lamb mode of a plate-like structure, in order to assess its thickness. Numerous publications elaborate on Impact-Echo theory, examples are (Gibson and Popovics 2005, Schubert and Köhler 2008 , Abraham and Popovics 2010). The measurements have been conducted using a setup that contains only commercially available components. The setup consists of an Olson CTG-2 concrete thickness gauge (Olsen Instruments, USA) for actuation and sensing and an 8-bit NI USB-5132 digital storage oscilloscope (National Instruments, USA) combined with the Echolyst software (Schweizerischer Verein für technische Inspektionen (SVTI), Switzerland) for data acquisition. Measurements were conducted using a grid of 29x29 points with a spacing of 50 mm. At each point 8192 samples were recorded at a sampling rate of 1 MS/s. The dataset contains the (X,Y) location in mm of the individual measurement points as well as the raw measurement data at those points. The data is provided in the formats *.mir/*.mhdr (Echolyst), *.npy (Python) and *.mat (Matlab) and *.csv to ease the import in various post-processing tools. KW - Concrete KW - Impact-Echo KW - Nondestructive testing PY - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/EH4E9G PB - Harvard College CY - Cambridge, MA, USA AN - OPUS4-55279 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Völker, Tobias A1 - Wilsch, Gerd A1 - Klewe, Tim A1 - Kruschwitz, Sabine 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 - TY - CONF A1 - Wilsch, Gerd A1 - Völker, Tobias A1 - Klewe, Tim A1 - Kruschwitz, Sabine 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 - Kapstadt, South Africa DA - 03.10.2022 KW - LIBS KW - Concrete KW - Chlorine PY - 2022 UR - https://iccrrr2022.org/downloads SP - 126 EP - 127 AN - OPUS4-56062 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 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-564519 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 - 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 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?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 - 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 AN - OPUS4-56323 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 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?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 - 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 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?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 - 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 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-565722 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 -