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Paper des Monats
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Reinforced concrete is a widely used material for power generation structures, where load scenarios like impact loadings need to be considered. In this context mechanical splicing systems for the connection of reinforcement bars are of specific interest and impact resistance for the splicing systems has to be verified. High speed tensile tests need to be performed on splicing systems for reinforcement bars to confirm the capability of the coupler to resist impact loading. Furthermore, the ability of the reinforcement steel to dissipate energy by ductile behaviour with pronounced plastic strains should be confirmed by these tests. During the last decades comprehensive experiences were developed at BAM performing high speed tensile tests on reinforcement bars as well as on several splicing systems. For the lack of available standards defining these tests in detail an appropriate test procedure was developed and continuously optimized during this period at BAM. The test procedure is partially based on testing principles adapted from available standards. The main intention behind this test procedure is to perform high-speed tensile tests with a specific constant strain rate generated at the specimen. Furthermore, main objective was to establish a procedure to guarantee the comparability of test results for different diameter of reinforcement as well as for different types of couplers. Besides the pure execution of the high-speed tensile tests, the test specification also declares how to evaluate the measurements and the test results. Finally, some typical results will be presented in this contribution.
The decommissioning or refurbishment of nuclear facilities necessitates either the storage or disposal of large radioactive components such as steam generators, pressurizers, reactor pressure vessels and heads, and coolant pumps, to list the major contributors. These components or objects are large in size and mass, measuring up to approximately 6 meters in diameter, up to 20 meters in length, and weighing over 400 000 kg. In many situations, the components are transported off-site to a storage, disposal or recycling/treatment facility. Previously, many large objects had to be transported under special arrangement.
The latest 2018 edition of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Regulations for the Safe Transport of Radioactive Material, No. SSR-6 [1], incorporates regulations for the shipment of large objects as a new category of surface contaminated object, SCO-III, based on the IAEA “performance package” concept. This paper provides background and practical guidance on these regulations.
Additionally, the experiences of BAM with the appoval of two steam converters of the NPP Lingen are presented as the first approval process for SCO-III objects in Germany.
The primary additions to SSR-6 include SCO-III classification and requirements, approval and administrative requirements for the new classification, and the addition of SCO-III to the proper shipping
name for UN 2913. Advisory material drafted for the new requirements will be included in the next revision of SSG-26, Advisory Material for the IAEA Regulations for the Safe Transport of Radioactive Material, expected to be published soon.
Note that at this time the proposed provisions for large objects do not include components such as reactor vessels, due to the more limited experience and greater radioactivity levels. The SCO-III concept lays the groundwork and may be extended to cover other large objects that are classified as low specific activity (LSA) material in the future.
Der diesjährige Beitrag zeigt den Einfluss ausgewählter Versuchsrandbedingungen auf das Abplatzverhalten von Normalbeton im kleinskaligen Brandversuch. Im Rahmen der Untersuchungen wurde die Abplatzneigung von acht zylindrischen Betonprüfkörpern der Maße Ø47 cm x 29 cm aus Normalbeton analysiert. Vier Prüfkörper wurden aus Normalbeton mit quarzitischer Gesteinskörnung hergestellt, wohingegen die grobe Gesteinskörnung (>2 mm) der anderen vier Prüfkörper durch Basaltsplitt ersetzt wurde. Neben der Art der groben Gesteinskörnung wurden zusätzlich ausgewählte Versuchsrandbedingungen variiert. Dies umfasste zum einen die Vorlagerung der Prüfkörper bei verschiedenen Umgebungsfeuchten und zum anderen die Ummantelung der Prüfkörper mit zwei Ringen aus Stahl bzw. einem durchgehenden Stahlblech. Die Ummantelung der Prüfkörper mit Stahlringen im Brandversuch führt zu einer Behinderung der thermischen Ausdehnung der Prüfkörper und zum Aufbau thermomechanischer Zwangsdruckspannungen. Diese Zwangsdruckspannungen werden maßgeblich von der thermischen Ausdehnung der verwendeten Gesteinskörnung beeinflusst. Zusätzlich wird die Feuchteabgabe über die Mantelfläche behindert. Der Einsatz des Stahlblechs reduziert lediglich die Abgabe der Feuchtigkeit über die Mantelfläche und induziert vernachlässigbare Zwangsdruckspannungen im Beton. Die Brandbeanspruchung der Prüfkörper erfolgte einseitig nach der Einheits-Temperaturzeitkurve (ETK) über einen Zeitraum von 60 Minuten. Mit Hilfe eines Laser Scanners wurden vergleichende 3D-Messungen der brandbeanspruchten Oberfläche vor und nach dem Brandversuch durchgeführt. Aus diesen Messungen konnten das Abplatzvolumen, die Abplatztiefenverteilung und die maximale Abplatztiefe ermittelt werden. Während des Brandversuchs wurde die Temperaturverteilung im Prüfkörper mittels fünf eingebetteter Mantelthermoelemente in verschiedenen Tiefen bestimmt. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass die Abplatzungen an der brandbeanspruchten Oberfläche infolge der Prüfkörperummantelung mit Stahlringen bzw. Stahlblech zunehmen. Bei einer Ummantelung mit Stahlringen mit gleichzeitiger Vortrocknung der Betonrandzone platzt der Prüfkörper mit quarzitischer Gesteinskörnung ab, wohingegen der Prüfkörper mit basaltischer Gesteinskörnung keine Abplatzungen aufweist. Dies wird auf die unterschiedliche Ausprägung der thermomechanischen Schädigung infolge der unterschiedlichen thermischen Ausdehnungskoeffizienten von Quarzkies und Basalt zurückgeführt.
Die Ergebnisse der Brandprüfserie zeigen, dass die Variation der Prüfrandbedingungen bei Beibehaltung der Prüfkörpergröße einen maßgeblichen Einfluss auf das Abplatzverhalten haben. Die Randbedingungen sind daher bei kleinskaligen Brandversuchen, die zukünftig als „Screening-Tests“ ersatzweise für kostenintensive Bauteilversuche verwendet werden sollen, zu berücksichtigen.
Thermal spraying enables a fast and propelling way to additively deposit various ceramics as electric insulators, which are used in conditions where polymers are not suitable. Alumina (Al2O3) is among the most employed materials in the coating industry since it exhibits good dielectric properties, high hardness, high melting point while still being cost-effective. Various parameters (e.g. feedstock type, plasma gas mixture, plasma power) significantly influence the resulting coating in terms of microstructure, porosity, crystallinity, and degree of un-or molten particles. As a consequence, these parameters need to be investigated to estimate the impact on the electrical insulating properties of thermally sprayed alumina. This study focuses on the development of a novel electric insulation coating from Al2O3 feedstock powders deposited via atmospheric plasma spray (APS). The microstructure, porosity, and corresponding crystallographic phases have been analyzed with optical microscopy, XRD, and SEM images. To achieve an understanding of the parameters influencing the electrical insulation performance of the manufactured coatings, an in-depth analysis of the fundamental dielectric parameters e.g., DC resistance, breakdown strength, dielectric loss tangent, permittivity is presented.
Underground sealing structures are necessary to seal radioactive or toxic waste in underground repositories. A special version of MgO concrete is used in the mine in Teutschenthal and applied at a large-scale test with the aim to provide a low permeability barrier. The test structures (up to 10 m long) were created by shotcreting. Besides destructive tests, non-destructive ultrasonic measurements have been evaluated for quality assurance to monitor potential anomalies such as cracks, concrete inhomogeneities, and delamination. We show results of ultrasonic measurements with a multi-transducer system used at the front and from the side of the concrete structure. Images are obtained by synthetic aperture focusing techniques. The boundaries between concreting sections are not visible in the ultrasonic images systematically so that a successful concreting is assumed, which is confirmed by the low permeabilities observed. Several reflectors up to a depth of 1.2 m are identified and interpreted as potential damages in the concrete. Phase analysis of prominent reflectors reveal a negative impedance contrast thus indicating air filled voids, cracks or delamination. Boreholes through some of the identified reflectors are used to verify the results from ultrasonic measurements. Additionally, an experiment with incorporated artificial defects was undertaken to analyse the reliability of the applied methods. Overall, the conducted tests show the potential of ultrasonic measurements to detect critical anomalies. Despite challenges at small-scale structures (cm-order), large-scale anomalies can be identified. Consequently, implementing ultrasonic monitoring during and after the construction of concrete sealing structures has shown its potential as a tool for quality assurance, but needs further development and validation.
Für Komponenten im Turbinen- oder Anlagenbau werden aufgrund ihrer Eigenschaften häufig Kobalt-Chrom-Legierungen verwendet. Diese weisen eine hohe Korrosionsbeständigkeit und hohen Verschleißwiederstand auf. Aufgrund der komplexen Strukturen und dem Bestreben nach Ressourceneffizienz wird zur Herstellung der Komponenten die additive Fertigung verwendet. Hierbei sind hinsichtlich der Inhomogenität und Anisotropie der Gefüge und deren Eigenschaften weitere Kenntnisse notwendig. Bei den vorliegenden Belastungen liegt ein erhöhter Anspruch an die Oberflächenintegrität vor, welcher durch komplementären Einsatz von additiven und abtragenden Fertigungsschritten sichergestellt wird. Dabei sind gerade Co-Cr-Legierungen wegen der niedrigen Wärmeleitfähigkeit verbunden mit hoher Festigkeit und Zähigkeit äußerst herausfordernd mit Blick auf eine wirtschaftliche Zerspanung mit geometrisch bestimmter Schneide. Ausgehend von dieser Problemstellung erfolgt im Zuge eines Gemeinschaftsvorhabens des ISAF in Kooperation mit der BAM eine gezielte Beeinflussung des Gefüges. Ziel des Projektes ist die Zusammenhänge zwischen verschiedenen Legierungsmodifikationen, der entstehenden Gefügemorphologie und den Zerspanungseigenschaften von Co- Cr-Legierungen für die additive Fertigung mittels PTA darzustellen. Der Fokus liegt auf dem Beheben der bestehenden Nachteile bei gleichzeitigem Aufrechthalten der besonderen Eigenschaften der Legierung. Durch das Hinzulegieren von variierenden Gehalten von Zirkonium und Hafnium wird die Gefügeveränderung eingestellt. Es hat sich gezeigt, dass Hafnium als zusätzliches Legierungselement einen deutlichen Einfluss auf die Gefügemorphologie hat. Darüber hinaus wird die Auswirkung der Legierungsmodifikation auf die Härte und die Zerspanbarkeit dargestellt.
With 8% of man-made CO2 emissions, cement production is an important driver of the climate crisis. By using alkali-activated binders, part of the energy-intensive clinker production process can be dispensed. However, as numerous raw materials are involved in the manufacturing process here, the complexity of the materials increases by orders of magnitude. Finding a properly balanced binder formulation is like looking for a needle in a haystack. We have shown for the first time that artificial intelligence (AI)-based optimization of alkali-activated binder formulations can significantly accelerate research.
The "Sequential Learning App for Materials Discovery" (SLAMD) aims to accelerate practice transfer. With SLAMD, materials scientists have low-threshold access to AI through interactive and intuitive user interfaces. The value added by AI can be determined directly. For example, the CO2 emissions saved per ton of cement can be determined for each development cycle: the more efficient the AI optimization, the greater the savings.
Our material database already includes more than 120,000 data points of alternative binders and is constantly being expanded with new parameters. We are currently driving the enrichment of the data with a life cycle analysis of the building materials.
Based on a case study we show how intuitive access to AI can drive the adoption of techniques that make a real contribution to the development of resource-efficient and sustainable building materials of the future and make it easy to identify when classical experiments are more efficient.
Hochfeste Feinkornbaustähle verfügen über ein großes Potenzial für gewichtsoptimierte, effiziente Strukturen in vielen modernen Stahlkonstruktion. Weitere Effizienzsteigerungen können durch additives Fertigen sowie bionische Bauweisen erreicht werden. Kommerzielle hochfeste Zusatzwerkstoffe für additives MSG-Schweißen (engl.: Wire Arc Additive Manufacturing, WAAM) sind bereits von den Schweißzusatzherstellern lieferbar. Derzeit ist jedoch eine breite industrielle Anwendung insbesondere für KMU aufgrund fehlender quantitativer Erkenntnisse und Richtlinien bezüglich schweißbedingter Beanspruchungen und Bauteilsicherheit während der Herstellung und des Betriebs stark limitiert. In einem gemeinsamen Forschungsprojekt (FOSTA-P1380/IGF21162BG) der BAM und der TU Chemnitz werden die mit Eigenspannungsausbildung und der Gefahr einer Kaltrissbildung verbundenen prozess- und werkstoffbedingten sowie konstruktiven Einflüsse untersucht. Im Fokus dieser Analysen steht die Bestimmung der Wechselwirkungen zwischen WAAM-Prozessparametern bzw. der Wärmeführung auf das Gefüge und die Eigenspannungen. Hierfür werden Referenzproben als offene Hohlquader mit definierten Abmessungen vollautomatisiert mit einem speziellen, hochfesten WAAM-Massivdraht (Streckgrenze >790 MPa) geschweißt. Die gezielte Einstellung der geometrischen Eigenschaften erfolgt durch Schweißparameter und Nahtaufbau bei ca. 4 kg/h mittlerer Abschmelzleistung. Die Wärmeführung wird innerhalb eines statistischen Versuchsplanes mittels Streckenenergie (200 kJ/m bis 650 kJ/m) und Zwischenlagentemperatur (100 °C bis 300 °C) so variiert, dass die t8/5-Abkühlzeiten dem empfohlenen Verarbeitungsbereich entsprechen (ca. 5 s bis 20 s). Ziel ist es bei konstanten geometrisch-konstruktiven Randbedingungen, den Einfluss der Wärmeführung auf Gefüge und resultierende Eigenspannungen zu analysieren. Darüber hinaus erfolgt die Bestimmung des Einflusses der t8/5-Abkühlzeit auf die mechanisch-technologischen Eigenschaften des speziellen, hochfesten WAAM-Massivdrahts mithilfe von Dilatometeranalysen. Für die Streckenenergie können neben den Gefügeeinflüssen aufgrund der resultierenden Abkühlzeit deutliche Effekte insbesondere auf die lokalen Eigenspannungen im Bauteil belegt werden. Das Schweißen mit zu hoher Wärmeeinbringung bzw. Abschmelzleistung kann zu ungünstigen Gefüge- und Bauteileigenschaften führen, gleichzeitig jedoch niedrigere Zugeigenspannungsniveaus bewirken. Die Dilatometeranalysen zeigen für den untersuchten WAAM-Schweißzusatzwerkstoff eine großes t8/5-Zeitfenster mit einer vergleichsweise geringen Abnahme der Zugfestigkeit mit zunehmender t8/5-Abkühlzeit. Solche komplexen Wechselwirkungen gilt es letztlich mit diesen Untersuchungen zu klären, um leicht anwendbare Verarbeitungsempfehlungen und Normvorgaben für ein wirtschaftliches, anforderungsgerechtes und risssicheres WAAM von hochfesten Stählen den Anwendern zur Verfügung zu stellen.
Temperature compensation strategies play a key role in the implementation of guided wave based structural health monitoring approaches. The varying temperature influences the performance of the inspection system inducing false alarms or missed detection, with a consequent reduction of reliability. This paper quantitatively assesses two temperature compensation methods, namely the optimal baseline selection (OBS) and the baseline signal stretch (BSS), with the aim to extend their use to the case of distributed sensor networks (DSN). The effect of temperature separation between baseline time-traces in OBS and BSS are investigated considering multiple couples of sensors employed in the DSN. A decision strategy that uses frequent value warning to define the optimal baseline or stretching parameter is found to be effective analyzing data from two several experiments, which use different frequency analysis with either predominantly A0 mode or S0 mode data or both. The focus is given on the fact that different paths are available in a sensor network and several possible combinations of results are available. Nonetheless, introducing a frequent value warning it is possible to increase the efficiency of the OBS and BSS approach making use of fewer signal processing algorithms. In addition, the effectiveness of those approach is quantified using damage indicators as metric, which confirms that the performance of OBS and BSS quantitatively agree with predictions and also demonstrate that the use of compensation strategies improve detectability of damage with a higher reliability of the system.
In nickelbasierten Superlegierungen, die für Gasturbinenschaufeln verwendet werden, sind bei hohen Betriebstemperaturen und -belastungen Kriechschäden, Ermüdung, Korrosion und Oxi-dation zu beobachten. Die betroffenen Turbinenschaufeln müssen ersetzt oder repariert werden, um Effizienzverluste und ein eventuelles Bauteilversagen zu vermeiden. In letzter Zeit wurden additive Fertigungs- und Lötverfahren für die Reparatur und das Fügen von Nickelbasiswerk-stoffen entwickelt, um die Einschränkungen der traditionellen Reparaturverfahren zu überwinden. Für eine auslegungsrelevante Bewertung des Risswachstumsverhaltens in den Fügezonen, die durch diese neuen Technologien erzeugt werden, sind Rissfortschrittsuntersuchungen erfor-derlich. Entsprechende Untersuchungen an gefügten Proben werden in diesem Beitrag vorge-stellt. Die Rissfortschrittsversuche werden an gefügten SEN-Proben (Single Edge Notch) bei einem Spannungsverhältnis von 0,1 und einer Temperatur von 950 °C durchgeführt. Das Riss-wachstum wird mit der DCPD-Methode (Direct Current Potential Drop) überwacht, und die ge-messenen Potenzialsignale werden anhand der optisch vermessenen Risslänge und einer Finite-Elemente-Analyse kalibriert. Der Spannungsintensitätsfaktor (SIF) für die gefügte SEN-Geometrie wird mit Hilfe von Finite-Elemente-Analysen berechnet. Auf diese Weise können Rissfortschrittskurven aus den experimentellen Daten abgeleitet werden.
Elastomer seals are mounted as barrier seals in lid systems of containers designed for transport and disposal of negligible heat generating radioactive waste and as auxiliary seals in spent fuel storage and transportation casks (dual purpose casks (DPC)). When the behavior of mounted seals under normal and hypothetical accident conditions of disposal and transport is to be simulated, a comprehensive knowledge of their complex mechanical properties at every state of aging is necessary. In previous works, BAM’s efforts in experimental investigations on specimen artificially aged at different temperatures and times and the implementation of the found results in finite element material models were presented. Additionally, our approaches to reproduce the aging process itself and to extrapolate the results of artificially accelerated aging to longer times were presented. Numerical simulations have shown that the behavior of the seal during mounting and one-sided pressurizing and the resulting performance values such as leakage rate strongly depend on the coefficient of friction (COF) between flange and seal. The friction coefficient, in turn, depends on the aging state of the elastomer material as several publications suggest (see below).
Dynamic COF between an exemplary ethylene propylene diene rubber (EPDM) material and a stainless steel ball were determined by using a self-designed linear oscillation tribometer. Unaged and artificially aged EPDM specimen stored for 30 days and 100 days at a temperature of 150 °C were tested. A stainless steel ball (d=10 mm) is brought in contact with the specimen’s surface und loaded by normal forces of 2.5 N, 5 N, 10 N and 20 N. During a reciprocating movement of the EPDM sheet, the horizontal force/friction force is continuously measured, and the COF can be derived.
It is well known that friction is a complex phenomenon especially in soft materials. It cannot be excluded that the measured friction force is influenced by additional force components, resulting from the ball’s grooving through the elastomer’s surface. This force depends on the penetration depth of the ball and on the resistance of the elastomer in its different states of aging. The latter results from microstructural changes i.e., chain scission and additional crosslinking that occur during aging which in turn influence the softening or hardening of the material.
A finite element (FE) ABAQUS® model was developed to reproduce the measurement process. It should help to better understand the physical mechanisms and to quantify the percentage of measured forces resulting from real friction on the one hand and forces resulting from unintended side effects that could falsify the result on the other hand. The behavior of the elastomer in its different states of aging is reproduced by a FE material model already presented in previous works of BAM.
Structural health monitoring techniques associate strongly with damage detection and characterization. Ultrasonic guided waves (UGW), for such scope, arise as one of the most promising methods for many reasons i.e. UGW are able to travel long distances and they have high sensitivity to damage. In this context, the necessity to model realistic wave-defect interaction occurs to be critical.
Realistic damage scenarios can be modeled through the usage of image-based quadtree meshes. Images, such as the outcome from X-ray scans, C-scans, etc., can be converted into meshes for further integration in a computational domain. Quadtree meshes are created by converting the intensity of the pixels to quadrilateral cells. Homogeneous regions inside one image result in one quad, whereas fine features such as discontinuities can be described with smaller quads.
This contribution proposes an efficient methodology to model wave defect interaction, using as a framework the scaled boundary finite element method (SBFEM) and quadtree meshes. Problems as non-conforming regions in the mesh due to the space tree decomposition can be easily avoided using SBFEM’s polygonal elements. Moreover, the semi-analytical nature of the SBFEM allows the modeling of arbitrarily long prismatic/undamaged regions of the waveguides without an increase in the computational burden.
Die B1 Brücke am Altstädter Bahnhof in Brandenburg an der Havel wurde im Dezember 2019 aufgrund von während einer turnusmäßigen Inspektion entdeckten Rissen und Hohlstellen entlang der vorgespannten Längsträger gesperrt und im Mai 2021 abgebrochen. In der Zwischenzeit wurde die Brücke detailliert überwacht. Vor dem Abriss wurden zudem umfangreiche Untersuchungen zur Bestandsaufnahme und Schadensanalyse sowie Tests moderner Sensorik vorgenommen. Dabei konnte sowohl die richtige, zuvor nicht sicher bekannte Anzahl von Spanngliedern in den Querträgern sicher ermittelt werden als auch durch moderne Varianten der Schwingungsmessungen und der faseroptischen Sensorik zusätzliche Kenntnisse püber das Bauwerksverhalten ermittelt werden . In dem Beitrag werden die Verfahren mit ihren Möglichkeiten und Grenzen vorgestellt, die Ergebnissee an der Brücke in Brandenburg erläutert und zukünftige Einsatzmöglichkeiten diskutiert.
Recently, non-destructive testing in civil engineering (NDT-CE), in particular of concrete components, has successfully mastered the leap from research to practice. Several methods have been established for field inspections to determine the concrete cover of reinforcement or to estimate the compressive strength as well as other parameters related to the concrete material. In addition, the application of nondestructive testing is indispensable, if information about the inner structure - such as the location of rebars and tendon ducts or the damage-related condition assessment to detect grouting defects, honeycombs, delamination, or corrosion - is required. Besides the selection of a suitable NDT method and an appropriate inspection system, the reliability of the results depends largely on the person who applies the non-destructive inspection technique and evaluates the inspection results. To ensure a high quality of non-destructive concrete evaluation as well as to keep the uncertainty caused by the inspection personnel to a minimum, structured, consistent and regulated theoretical as well as practical training of inspection personnel is essential. To close this gap, the subcommittee of education (UA-A) within the committee for NDT-CE of the German Society for Nondestructive Testing (DGZfP) has been reactivated in 2018 to establish uniform training standards for nondestructive concrete inspections in the long term. The subcommittee consists of scientists, practitioners, authorities, and clients. So far, the national standard DIN 4871 “Non-destructive testing - Qualification and Certification of NDT personnel in Civil Engineering (NDT-CE)” was developed and is currently under review. This standard considers the civil-industry-specifics, for example, that standards for NDT of concrete, as well as related product standards with a few exceptions, still do not exist at the moment. Within this presentation, the concept, the connection to ISO 9712 and other standards as well as an overview of the developed German standard DIN 4871 will be presented.
The project "SealWasteSafe" of the Bundesanstalt für Materialforschung und -prüfung (BAM, Berlin) deals with sealing structures applied for underground disposal of nuclear waste from two perspectives: (1) material improvement for application in sealing constructions and (2) feasibility study regarding multi-sensor approaches to ensure quality assurance and long-term monitoring.
One specimen of 150 l made of alkali-activated material, which was found innovative and suitable for sealing constructions based on preliminary laboratory studies, and, for comparison purpose, another one made of salt concrete, are manufactured with an integrated multi-sensory setup for quality assurance and long-term-monitoring. The specimens were left in their cast form and additionally thermally insulated to simulate the situation in the repository. The multi-sensory concept comprises RFID technology embedded in the specimens suppling material temperature and moisture measurements, integrated fibre optic sensing allowing strain measurement and acoustic emission testing for monitoring possible crack formation. Overall, the suitability and the functionality of the sensors embedded into and attached to strongly alkaline (pH > 13 for the AAM) and salt corrosive (NaCl) environment was proven for the first 672 h.
First temperature measurement based on RFID succeeded after 626 h for the alkali-activated material and after 192 h for the conventional salt concrete. Strain measurement based on distributed fibre optic sensing turned out the alkali-activated material with > 1 mm m-1 undergoing approximately twice the compression strain as the salt concrete with strains < 0.5 mm m-1. In contrast, the acoustic emission first and single hits representing crack formation in numbers, was found for alkali-activated material half of that detected at the salt concrete.
A new type of ultrasonic borehole probe is currently under development for the quality assurance of sealing structures in radioactive waste repositories using existing research boreholes. The goal is to examine the sealing structures made of salt concrete for possible cracks, delamination, and embedded objects. Earlier prototype probes use 12 or 16 individual dry point contact (DPC) horizontal shear wave transducers grouped into a transmitter and a receiver array, each made up of six or eight individual transducers. They are operated with a commercially available portable ultrasonic flaw detector used in the civil engineering industry. To increase the generated sound pressure of the borehole probe, the number of transducers in the novel probe is increased to 32. In addition, timed excitation of each probe is used to direct a focused sound beam to a specific angle and distance based on calculated time delays. Hence, the sensitive test volume is limited, and the signal-to-noise ratio of the received signals is improved. This paper presents the validation of the newly developed phased array borehole probe by beam computation in CIVA software and experimental investigations on a semi-cylindrical test specimen to investigate the directional characteristics. In combination with geophysical reconstruction techniques, an optimised radiation pattern of the probe is expected to improve the signal quality and thus increase the reliability of the imaging results.
This is of great importance for the construction of safe sealing structures needed for the disposal of radioactive or toxic waste.
The majority of ultrasonic devices used for non-destructive testing in civil engineering require contact with the surface of the concrete (specimen), which significantly increases the time required for the measurement. This makes it impractical for extensive investigation of large-scale structures such as bridge decks, foundations, or tunnels.
In a pioneering approach, fluidic oscillators are used as contact free ultrasonic sources to overcome the aforementioned limitations. These robust and cost-effective actuators require only pressurised air and are ideally suited for harsh environments. At a constant supply pressure, they generate a continuous mono-frequent actuation signal. Further, varying the supply pressure via a fast pressure regulator was found to generate a frequency modulated signal which enabled time-of-flight measurement with an added advantage of increased signal to noise ratio. To demonstrate the feasibility of this novel idea of non-contact ultrasound, the results of the initial tests are presented.
Concrete structures are invaluable assets to a society and managing them efficiently and effectively can be supported by information gathered through structural health monitoring (SHM). In this paper, a combined approach based on passive, i.e., acoustic emission (AE), and active, i.e., ultrasonic stress wave (USW) monitoring techniques for application to concrete structures is proposed and evaluated. While AE and USW are based on the same underlying physics, i.e., wave motion in solids, they differ fundamentally with respect to the nature of the source. For the former, external stimuli such as mechanical loads or temperature cause the rapid release of energy from initially unknown locations. As a result, AE events are unique and cannot be repeated. For the latter, a known source at a known location is employed at a specified time. This approach is thus controlled and repeatable. It is
argued that a combination of these two techniques has the potential to provide a more comprehensive picture of ongoing fracture processes, damage progression, as well as slowly occurring aging and degradation mechanisms.
This combined approach does thus promise new opportunities to support condition assessment of concrete structures. After providing an overview and comparison of the two techniques, results, and observations from a full-scale laboratory experiment and an in-service bridge monitoring study are discussed to demonstrate the promise of the proposed combined monitoring approach. Finally, suggestions for further work are presented.
This contribution summarizes actual developments and draft fundamental teaching topics in the field of nondestructive testing in civil engineering (NDT-CE). It is based on the first memorandum on teaching and research in the field of NDT-CE at German speaking universities and provides an overview of the academic education and highlights possible focuses, especially in teaching but also takes into account noteworthy developments and topics in research in the field of NDT-CE.
Suggestions are given for the development and advancement of the teaching curricula in regards to a comprehensive and sound professional education of students in civil engineering and adjacent disciplines.
Muon tomography applied to assessment of concrete structures: First experiments and simulations.
(2022)
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.