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Non-destructive testing (NDT) is a major contributor to the safe railway operation. Even though NDT reliability in railway maintenance is affected by human factors, there are only just a few studies published in this field so far. Education and training of the NDT personnel are some of the most important drivers of safe and reliable NDT. Continuously improving current practices and tools used for educational purposes can be achieved not only through technical con¬tent, but also through the attention to human factors. The aim of this study was to deepen the understanding of possible human-related risks in the manual ultrasonic inspection of the hollow railway axles and to suggest measures to improve the education and training of the NDT person¬nel. This was achieved by means of Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA) carried out with eight NDT experts and by a survey of 27 experienced inspectors. The results show that failures can happen throughout the entire NDT process. Prevention of those failures could be improved through the optimization of the organization, technology, documentation and regulations, working conditions and the general process, and through the optimization of the formal education and training. Specialized training of the executives, extended training of the supervisors and the inspectors and improvement of the inspection documentation have been suggested. The study also showed potential for the improvements of the inspection in the field.
Increasing requirements on the infrastructure caused by more and heavier traffic coincide with both the aging and the progressive degradation of bridge constructions. These exemplary issues lead to a non-negligible need for reassessments of existing bridges. Compared to the new building design, safety reserves can be used in the evaluation of such existing structures, since uncertainties that may arise during the design, construction and previous Service time are better known or no longer present. Uncertainties can be evaiuated more precisely by measurements. In the meantime, the application of advanced NDT-methods on concrete structures have become so capable, that crucial structure Parameters like certain material properties or geometrical dimensions can be quantified without significant destructive interventions. The measured data can be explicitly incorporated into the probabilistic computation models used for the bridge reassessment in form of random variables. Therewith, a previously insufficient model can be refined to achieve a higher level of approximation. This contribution emphasises two fundamental steps of the measured data based probabilistic reassessment: The sensitivity analyses to identify the cruciai Parameters and the needed accuracy of the related information as well as the comparison with expected uncertainties of non-destructively measured Parameters.
Ultrasonic methods are used in concrete investigations since decades. While being limited to transmission testing in the laboratory for a while, in-situ echo measurements for structural investigations and condition assessment have made their way into practical application in the past 20 years. However, several challenges remain. On one side, there are technical issues as limitations in depth of penetration, resolution and imaging capabilities. On the other side there are still gaps in validation, standardization and certification, which are limiting the applicability in condition/load capacity assessment.
This review reports a couple of developments which will help to overcome these issues. This includes technical developments as new devices which are easier to handle on site or giving a much deeper penetration depth (e.g. the LAUS device at BAM) as well as improvements in imaging by hardware update (e. g. air coupled ultrasound or coded signals) or new software (e. g. RTM imaging). To foster the application in real world projects we are as well working on standardization by developing new reference specimen with international partners which will ensure world-wide comparability of ultrasonic and other methods and quality assurance codes. Further, non-destructive methods are being used to update probabilistic models used for the reassessment of existing structures to support the structural engineer’s decisions.
Entwicklung eines luftgekoppelten Ultraschall-Echo-Prüfverfahrens mittels fluidischer Anregung
(2019)
In vielen technischen Bereichen werden Ultraschallverfahren zur zer-störungsfreien Werkstoffprüfung eingesetzt. Dabei wird ein Schallpuls von einem Prüfkopf in ein Prüfobjekt eingebracht. Der Puls kann unter anderem durch Membra-nen oder Piezoelemente erzeugt werden und wird in der Regel durch direkten Kontakt oder über ein Koppelmittel an das Objekt übertragen. Luftgekoppelter Ultraschall spielt in kommerziellen Anwendungen bisher eine untergeordnete Rolle, da die Dif-ferenz der akustischen Impedanzen von Luft und Festkörpern immense Verluste beim Übergang des Schallsignals hervorruft.
In diesem Beitrag soll ein neuartiges Anregungsprinzip vorgestellt werden, mit dem ein Großteil dieser Verluste vermieden wird. Anstelle eines Festkörpers soll mit Hilfe einer fluidischen Düse Druckluft zur Signalerzeugung eingesetzt werden. In die-ser Düse wird eine selbsterhaltende Strömungsinstabilität erzeugt, die einen Schall-puls von bis zu 100 kHz hervorruft, sodass der Impedanzverlust in die Umgebungsluft entfällt. Da die charakteristische Frequenz eines fluidisch generierten Pulses maßgeb-lich von der Bauform der Düse und dem anliegenden Druck abhängt, lässt sich mittels einer geeigneten Strömungsregelung ein breiter Frequenzbereich zur Abtastung nut-zen. Die so emittierten Pulse werden auf das Prüfobjekt gerichtet und die reflektierten Signale mit einem Laservibrometer an der Oberfläche des Objekts im Echo-Verfahren abgetastet. Von drei signalmindernden Materialübergängen bei gewöhnlichem luftge-koppeltem Ultraschall bleibt in dem hier vorgeschlagenen Messystem lediglich die Grenzfläche von Luft zu Prüfkörper, sodass eine höhere Signalausbeute als bisher er-wartet werden kann.
The reassessment of bridges is becoming increasingly important. The basic requirement for analyses of structural safety is reliable knowledge about individual structures. This paper introduces the new approach to evaluate the quality of measured data gained from non-destructive testing (NDT) to provide reliable, objective, and relevant information about existing bridges. The purpose is to relate this validated knowledge to probabilistic analyses. Bridging the gap between NDT and numerical reassessments indicates reduced numerical uncertainties and residual service time extensions. This paper deals with an application of this approach using measurement data collected by ultrasonic technique at a prestressed concrete bridge.