Ground penetrating radar (GPR) and infrared (IR) thermography techniques have been used in many civil engineering applications for the structural visualization and defect detection.
However, validation tests of the methods performance for the defection of defects in the nearsurface region with respect to the defects different material and depth below the surface are lacking. To overcome this, we performed GPR and IR thermography tests where the different material properties, shape and depth of defects were studied on concrete and the evaluation of seismic related damage propagation was assessed on stone masonry walls. The results showed that IR thermography, though being greatly affected by the presence of water in the specimen, outperformed GPR in the detection of defects very close to the surface. However, already at the depth of 3 cm and further up till almost 7.5 cm, the performance of GPR resembles the one of IR thermography for the detection of polystyrene (air) voids. On the plastered masonry walls, IR thermography could detect an air gap resulting from plaster delamination as small as 2 mm.
Moreover, structural cracking resulting from the induced lateral load could be detected at an early stage.
The influence of moisture on the reliability of detection of larger voids in brickwork masonry was investigated using three non-destructive techniques: radar, ultrasonic and complex resistivity (CR). Radar and ultrasonic travel time tomography, as well as CR tomography, were performed over a specific cross section of a specimen containing a large void at a known position to determine the influence of different levels of moisture content in the brickwork on the wave velocities and the CR magnitude. We defined a numerical estimator to quantitatively determine the void detection efficiency from the images obtained when exposing the specimen to moisture. The results showed radar to be the most reliable technique for void detection in both dry and wet masonry, while CR performed much better in detecting larger air voids in wet masonry.
Das Impulsradarverfahren hat sich in der zerstörungsfreien Prüfung im Bauwesen in den letzten Jahren etabliert. Mögliche Nutzer des Verfahrens sind oft daran interessiert, in einer ersten Abschätzung herauszufinden, ob Impulsradar bei ihrer Prüfaufgabe sinnvoll eingesetzt werden kann. Sofern die physikalischen Voraussetzungen für die Anwendbarkeit gegeben sind, ist danach die Machbarkeit von Interesse. Dazu ist die erzielbare Detektionstiefe von Bewehrungsstäben in Beton mit Radar von Bedeutung. In diesem Beitrag werden systematische Untersuchungen beschrieben, bei denen die erzielbare Detektionstiefe von Bewehrungsstäben in Betonbauteilen zunächst auf einfache Weise visuell quantifiziert wurde. Diese Untersuchungen wurden mit verschiedenen Antennenmittenfrequenzen durchgeführt. Dazu wurden Betonbauteile konzipiert, die bezüglich der Größen Einbautiefe, Bewehrung, Betonalter (Aushärtung des Betons) und Betonrezeptur variiert wurden. Am Ende stehen Kurven, aus denen die realistisch erzielbaren Detektionstiefen von Bewehrungsstäben in Beton in Abhängigkeit von Betonalter, Antennenmittenfrequenz und Betonsorte abgelesen werden können. Um den Einfluss der oberflächennahen Bewehrung und des Größtkorns der Gesteinskörnung auf die Detektionstiefen zu quantifizieren, sind tiefergehende Auswertungen mithilfe der POD(a)-Analyse erforderlich. Die Ergebnisse dieser beiden Einflussgrößen sind als Teil einer umfangreichen Dissertation zum Thema POD hier dargestellt.-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Quantification of depth measurement for the detection of metal rebars using Radar:
Among non-destructive testing methods in civil-engineering (NDT-CE) Radar or GPR (Ground Penetrating Radar) has been well established. As a first step the engineer has to make sure the chosen NDT-method is applicable. When the physical requirements for an application are fulfilled the engineer wants to know up to what depth he might detect reinforcement bars. This article summarizes the results of systematic testing with radar at well-defined test specimens with different concrete mixtures, rebars in various depths using different antenna frequencies for their detection. As a result simple detection curves allow the engineer to estimate the attainable detection depth of reinforcement bars depending on the concrete age, concrete mixture and antenna frequency. To quantify the influence of the reinforcement near the surface or the maximum grain size of the aggregate advanced data assessment using the theory of POD (Probability of Detection) is presented as part of a comprehensive PhD thesis.