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Acoustic emission and ultrasonic monitoring of a prestressed concrete bridge in its final years
(2021)
Many European bridges built in the 1950s, 60s and 70s must be re-placed in the next decade due to structural deficiencies, insufficient load capacity or other issues. However, the existing bridges must be used for another couple of years even if flaws and damages already have been detected.
In Germany, several prestressed concrete bridges have been instrumented with acoustic emission detection systems to detect wire breaks and to provide early warning signs before failure. To evaluate and interpret the consequences of wire breaks additional instrumentation and accompanying measures as finite element modeling are required.
At a bridge in southern Germany we have complemented such a system with active ultrasonic monitoring. Repeated ultrasonic measurements are evaluated with a very sensible algorithm called coda wave interferometry. This method, inspired by seismology, has been shown to deliver early warning signs in lab experiments. Large volumes of concrete can be monitored with a limited network of ultrasonic transducers. We will report on the installation, capabilities, and lim-itations as well as first results.
This article presents a unique method of installing a special type of embedded ultrasonic transducers inside a 36-m-long section of an old bridge in Germany. A small-scale load test was carried out by a 16 ton truck to study the temperature and load influence on the bridge, as well as the performance of the embedded transducers. Ultrasonic coda wave interferometry technique, which has high sensitivity in detecting subtle changes in a heterogeneous medium, was used for the data evaluation and interpretation. The separation of two main influence factors (load effect and temperature variation) is studied, and future applications of wave velocity variation rate Φ for structural health condition estimation are discussed. As a preliminary research stage, the installation method and the performance of the ultrasonic transducer are recognized. Load- and temperature-induced weak wave velocity variations are successfully detected with a high resolution of 10−4%. The feasibility of the whole system for long-term structural health monitoring is considered, and further research is planned.
To provide better means for a safe and effective monitoring of cemented waste packages including prediction tools to assess the future integrity development during pre-disposal activities, several digital tools are evaluated and improved in the frame of the EC funded project PREDIS. Safety enhancement (e. g. less exposure of testing personnel) and cost effectiveness are part of the intended impact.
The work includes but is not limited to inspection methods such as muon imaging, wireless sensors integrated into waste packages as well as external package and facility monitoring such as remote fiber optical sensors. The sensors applied will go beyond radiation monitoring and include Proxy parameters important for long term integrity assessment (e. g. internal pressure). Sensors will also be made cost effective to allow the installation of much more sensors compared to current practice.
The measured data will be used in digital twins of the packages for specific simulations (geochemical, integrity) providing a prediction of future behavior. Machine Learning techniques trained by the characterization of older packages will help to connect the models to the actual data.
All data (measured and simulated) will be collected in a joint data base and connected to a decision framework to be used at actual facilities.
The presentation includes detailed information about the various tools under consideration, their connection and first results of our research.
This contribution introduces an investigation of a large-scale prestressed concrete bridge model (“BLEIB” structure at the BAM-TTS open air test site) by means of on-site cooperative measurements. This bridge has an external post-tensioning system and has been instrumented with the ultrasonic transducers, temperature sensors and optical fibers for Distributed Acoustic Sensing (DAS). Our experiment was designed to test the suitability of the novel 6C sensors developed within the framework of the GIOTTO project – the IMU50. The IMU50 sensor enables vibration measurements in translation along three axes and rotation around three axes. The geophone sensors were considered for complementary measurements of vertical velocity response. In the experiment, several perturbations were achieved by controlling the external influence factors such as loading and prestressing changes. The aim of the integrated measurement strategy was to fully observe the results of the condition change and to verify the effectiveness of multiple sensors for bridge monitoring.
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.
Presentation on recent progress in ultrasinic testing and monitoring of concrete for massive structures. First, a new instrument (LAUS) for ultrasonic echo testing of thicknesses up to 5 m is shown. A new method to provide better images of the concrete interior, Reverse Mitem Migration (RTM)is presented. Second, the use of embedded ultrasonic transducers and data processing methods borrowed from seismology to detect subtle changes in concrete are documented.
Ultraschall-Transmissionsmessungen werden seit Jahrzehnten bei der Qualitätssicherung von Betonkonstruktionen eingesetzt. Aus den Wellengeschwindigkeiten lassen sich dynamische Elastizitätsmoduln und – nach lokaler Kalibrierung – auch Druckfestigkeiten ermitteln. Zudem ergeben sich Hinweise auf Risse und andere Materialschwächungen. Der Einsatz erfolgt vor allem im Labor oder an der Bauwerksoberfläche. Neuerdings werden auch Monitoringsysteme mit eingebetteten Sensoren auf Ultraschallbasis erfolgreich getestet. Die Talsperre Eibenstock dient als größte Sperre in Sachsen der Trinkwasserversorgung und dem Hochwasserschutz. Hier wurden während der Bauphase im Jahr 1979 im Fußbereich des Mauerkörpers Ultraschallsensoren eingebracht, die in Verbindung mit einem Messoszilloskop eine Überwachung der Erhärtung des Mauerbetons ermöglichten.
Der für die Sensorauswahl eingesetzte Messstellenumschalter wurde im September 2011 grundlegend instand gesetzt. Danach zeigte sich, dass die eingebetteten Sensoren selbst sowie die Verkabelung auch nach über fünfunddreißig Jahren in einwandfreiem Zustand sind. Eine nunmehr aufgelegte Messserie mit modernem Gerät von über einem Jahr mit ein- bis zweimonatigen Intervallen zeigte, dass die Wellengeschwindigkeit seit der Bauphase noch einmal um gut 10 % zugenommen hat, was für eine erhöhte Druckfestigkeit spricht. Innerhalb des Jahres zeigten sich auch bei Einsatz neuer, sehr sensibler Auswertemethoden (sog. Codawelleninterferometrie) nur geringfügige Schwankungen. Diese waren auch nicht zu erwarten, da sich die Füllhöhe zu den Messzeitpunkten nur gering unterschied, die Temperatur im Bauwerksinneren nur wenig schwankte und der Bauwerkszustand sehr gut ist.
Die Aussagen zur Betongüte sind direkt vergleichbar mit den früheren Mess- und Untersuchungsergebnissen an der Talsperre Gottleuba, die im gleichen Zeitraum errichtet wurde und ebenfalls mit einem Ultraschallsystem ausgerüstet war. Die Experimente zeigten, dass ein Einsatz von Ultraschallsystemen für die Bauwerksüberwachung auch über Jahrzehnte möglich ist. Dies war im vorliegenden Fall nie geplant, aber durch den Einsatz der Mitarbeiter vor Ort und der Herstellerfirma möglich. Bei zukünftigen Systemen ist eine langfristige Planung unter Einbeziehung aller Beteiligten sowie eine Einbindung in Überwachungs- und Wartungspläne notwendig, damit die qualitätsgesichert gewonnen Daten gewinnbringend genutzt werden können.
The presentation will give an overview on non-destructive testing techniques being developed at the Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing, Germany (BAM). This includes ultrasonic methods, ground penetration radar, Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS), infrared thermography, pile testing, sensor technology and building scanner. A focus of the talk will be ultrasonic methods, which are well established in various aspects of concrete testing. They are used for imaging the interior geometry of constructions, estimation of concrete strength or monitoring lab investigations. However, so far the detection of distributed damages, especially in an early stage, has been almost impossible. The arrival of new technologies as embedded transducers and sensitive data processing techniques adopted from seismology has opened new field of work. Recent research has been focused to detect changes in concrete elements induced by stress, temperature, moisture or chemical attacks by permanent monitoring. Techniques as Coda Wave Interferometry can resolve changes in ultrasonic velocity in the order of 1*10-5. In addition, many researchers believe that the investigation of nonlinear effects can be used to characterize damages. The presentation will give a wrap up of ultrasonic techniques currently used in practice. This will include echo based methods as multi-channel/multi-offset imaging of structural elements using commercial and prototype devices. Imaging methods as SAFT and RTM will be shortly discussed. The focus will be on the emerging techniques used for monitoring. New types of sensors will be presented as well as the devices used in laboratory and field applications. Insight will be given on the various influence factors on ultrasonic signals and various ways of feature extraction and data processing. The results of lab experiments will be shown to demonstrate the detection of various kind of damages from mechanical load, ASR, corrosion to fatigue. The experiences with our first installations in real constructions (bridges, tunnel) will also be presented.
Processing ultrasonic data by coda wave interferometry to monitor load tests of concrete beams
(2018)
Ultrasonic transmission measurements have been used for decades to monitor concrete elements, mostly on a laboratory scale. Recently, coda wave interferometry (CWI), a technique adapted from seismology, was introduced to civil engineering experiments. It can be used to reveal subtle changes in concrete laboratory samples and even large structural elements without having a transducer directly at the place where the change is taking place. Here, several load tests until failure on large posttensioned concrete beams have been monitored using networks of embedded transducers. To detect subtle effects at the beginning of the experiments and cope with severe changes due to cracking close to failure, the coda wave interferometry procedures had to be modified to an adapted step-wise approach. Using this methodology, we were able to monitor stress distribution and localize large cracks by a relatively simple technique. Implementation of this approach on selected real structures might help to make decisions in infrastructure asset management.
Informationen zu in Betonbauteilen stattfindenden Umlagerungsprozessen sowie Druckspannungsverteilungen können mit konventioneller Messtechnik bislang nicht zweifelsfrei beantwortet werden. Ultraschallmessungen mit eingebetteten Sensoren könnten hier eine sinnvolle Ergänzung zur konventionellen Messtechnik sein. Durch Einsatz der Codawelleninterferometrie (CWI) sind hiermit schon sehr kleine Änderungen im Material detektierbar.
Um diese neue Methodik zu evaluieren, wurde das Forschungsprojekt „Querkrafttragfähigkeit von Spannbetonbrücken – Erfassung von Spannungszuständen in den Spannbetonversuchsträgern mit Ultraschallsensoren“ durch die Bundesanstalt für Straßenwesen (BASt) initiiert. In diesem Projekt wurden durch die Bundesanstalt für Materialforschung und –prüfung (BAM) Ultraschall-Transducer in mehrere Spannbetonträger des Instituts für Massivbau der RWTH Aachen eingebettet, die anschließend bis zum Bruch belastet wurden.
Der Belastungsversuch an einem der Spannbetondurchlaufträger zeigte das große Potential dieser Methodik. Die im Netzwerk erfassten Änderungen der Ultraschallwellengeschwindigkeit geben die Spannungsverhältnisse im Längsschnitt des Trägers schon bei sehr niedrigen Belastungen qualitativ richtig wieder und zeigen bei hohen Belastungen eine gute Korrelation zum Rissbild. Dabei weisen räumliche Anomalien und Änderungen in der Charakteristik der Geschwindigkeitsänderungen oft schon auf Rissbildung hin, wenn diese noch nicht an der Oberfläche sichtbar ist. Dies zeigt das Potential im Hinblick auf eine Frühwarnung. Hierfür und ebenso in Bezug auf eine Quantifizierung der Effekte ist aber noch Entwicklungsarbeit notwendig. Ein Vorteil der Methodik ist, dass die Transducer nicht direkt am Ort der Änderung platziert werden müssen und einen relativ großen Bereich um die Transducer herum erfassen.
Concrete is known to be a very useful, flexible and durable construction material. However, due to excess load, fatigue, chemical processes, freeze-thaw or reinforcement corrosion concrete may suffer from degradation. If detected too late, repair is difficult and expensive.
The propagation of ultrasonic waves is influenced by changes in the properties and structure of the material, including, but not limited to, stress, temperature, moisture content and microcracking. Ultrasonic velocieties thus may serve as indicators for structural health. Traditional ultrasonic methods as transmission time of flight measurements are used since decades, but are not sensible enough to show subtle changes. Coda Wave Interferometry (CWI), originally developed in seismology to detect stress changes in the earth's crust uses the information in the late part of ultrasonic signals originating from multiple reflections and scattering. Since a few years it is used by several researchers for lab experiments on concrete.
Meanwhile specialized sensors to be embedded in concrete have been developed. We have conducted several lab and a few field experiments, which will be reported here. The capabilities and limitations of CWI are summarized.
Utilization of coherent phase information in complex wave fields forms the basis of interferometric time series analysis. The concept is known since decades, but until about 15 years ago there have been no practical implementations. Meanwhile seismic interferometry is used in a wide range from investigations of the earth’s deep crust to engineering applications. Focused on monitoring and imaging the MIIC (Monitoring and Imaging based on Interferometric Concepts) project as part of the German GeoTechnologien program has contributed to this development. Special attention was given to the transfer of methodology to different length scales that range from centimeters, in laboratory applications, over geotechnical scales to even kilometers in seismological applications. General purpose methods and open source software was developed, which can be used on all scales. The core of the MIIC software is a Python library organized in different modules for various processing tasks. A graphical user interface facilitates the creation of processing routines by visualizing connections and dependencies of variables and by checking the consistency of data types. Example applications have included carbon sequestration, salt mine and railroad embankment monitoring as well as imaging changes in concrete constructions.
The propagation of ultrasonic waves in concrete is affected by its micro- and macro-structure, geometry and properties as well as external influences as stress, temperature or moisture. In addition, age and degradation have a strong influence. Therefore, Ultrasound has been used to monitor concrete samples and structures since decades. However, early applications using conventional techniques as time-of flight or changes in amplitudes have been limited to detect changes in a late stage close to serviceability or ultimate load states.
Around 2000, several new, more sensitive techniques adopted from geophysics or other field of material sciences have been introduced to research in ultrasonic monitoring of concrete. The most discussed methodologies are coda wave interferometry, a technique which allows to detect very subtle changes from repeated ultrasonic measurements. Nonlinear acoustic techniques help to identify e. g. cracks even in an inhomogeneous background. Both techniques can be combined.
This paper reviews methods and results achieved so far on the laboratory scale and with full scale models the directions for future research and application is given as well.
Seismic interferometry (SI) deals either with the sensible detection of changes in the subsurface or with the reconstruction of virtual signals between two receivers by crosscorrelation of signals from diffuse sources. These concepts can be applied in NDT in civil engineering for various purposes, e. g. to detect changes in bridges. Here it is demonstrated using data from a reference structure on our test site. Practical applications can be expected in the very near future.
In earthquake-prone regions such as the Pacific Northwest, damage assessment tools are needed to enable safety evaluations to support recovery. Currently, damage assessment is performed primarily by visual inspection and is often impossible for structural members that are inaccessible, such as deep foundations or interior members hidden by cladding. This study explores the possibility of using embedded ultrasonic transducers to monitor reinforced concrete members for damage progression under earthquake loading. A novel methodology is proposed where changes in the member condition due to an increase in the earthquake-type loading of a full-scale column-foundation specimen are correlated with changes in the recorded ultrasonic waveforms. The discussed preliminary analysis of the ultrasonic signals is based on wave propagation velocity, changes in the coda wave portion, and maximum amplitude of the signals. Three embedded transducers were used to continuously monitor the laboratory specimen during destructive testing. This paper provides an overview of the proposed methodology, outlines the laboratory experiment, and discusses some preliminary observations.
Before the final disposal of radioactive wastes, various processes can be implemented to optimise the waste form. This can include different chemical and physical treatments, such as thermal treatment for waste reduction, waste conditioning for homogenisation and waste immobilisation for stabilisation prior to packaging and interim storage. Ensuring the durability and safety of the waste matrices and packages through performance and condition assessment is important for waste owners, waste management organisations, regulators and wider stakeholder communities. Technical achievements and lessons learned from the THERAMIN and PREDIS projects focused on low- and intermediate-level waste handling is shared here. The recently completed project on Thermal Treatment for Radioactive Waste Minimization and Hazard Reduction (THERAMIN) made advances in demonstrating the feasibility of different thermal treatment techniques to reduce volume and immobilise different streams of radioactive waste (LILW) prior to disposal. The Pre-Disposal Management of Radioactive Waste (PREDIS) project addresses innovations in the treatment of metallic materials, liquid organic waste and solid organic waste, which can result from nuclear power plant operation, decommissioning and other industrial processes. The project also addresses digitalisation solutions for improved safety and efficiency in handling and assessing cemented-waste packages in extended interim surface storage.
Ultrasonic transmission measurements are used to monitor concrete elements mostly on a laboratory scale since decades. Recently, coda wave interferometry, a technique adapted from seismology, has been introduced to civil engineering experiments. It can be used to reveal subtle changes in concrete samples and even large construction elements without having a transducer directly at the location where the change is taking place. The methodology works best with embedded transducers to avoid coupling issues or excessive environmental influence. These transducers can be used for newly built and existing structures. Recently, large concrete beams have been equipped with a network of transducers and loaded until failure. Using code wave interferometry, it was possible to visualize stress fields and damaged areas. This paper gives an overview of the state of the art, recent results achieved at BAM and a task list for further results and development.
Die Überwachung von Bauteilen aus Stahl- oder Spannbeton mit Ultraschall hat in Labor- und Technikumsversuchen schon vielversprechende Ergebnisse gezeigt. Besonders gute Resultate wurden dabei mit eingebetteten Ultraschalltrans-ducern und bei Auswertung der Daten mit der hochsensiblen Codawelleninterferometrie erzielt. Erfasst werden können neben Temperatur- und Feuchteeffekten auch Belastungszustände und jegliche Art von Schädigung, die mit Mikro- oder Makrorissbildung einhergeht.
Seit 2019 untersucht die DFG-Forschergruppe 2825 „CoDA“ (Sprecher: Prof. Christoph Gehlen, TU München) ver-schiedenste Aspekte dieser innovativen Technologie mit dem Ziel, Einflussgrößen quantitativ zu erfassen, Umweltein-flüsse zu korrigieren und 3D-Auswerteverfahren zu verbessern. Final soll eine am Bauwerk einsatzfähige Methode ent-stehen, die klassische Monitoringverfahren ergänzt und erweitert sowie Input zu einem Update des statischen Systems liefert.
Aufgaben der BAM in der Forschergruppe ist neben Verbesserung und Adaptierung der Messsystem und Sensorik auch Langzeitversuche an einem Großobjekt und Testinstallationen an Realbauwerken. Hierzu liegen erste Ergebnisse vor, die zeigen, dass die Technologie auch außerhalb des Labors einsatzfähig ist.
Ultrasonic methods are well established in various aspects of concrete testing. They are used for imaging the interior geometry of constructions, estimation of concrete strength or monitoring lab investigations. However, so far the detection of distributed damages, especially in an early stage, has been almost impossible. The arrival of new technologies as embedded transducers and sensitive data processing techniques adopted from seismology has opened new field of work. Recent research has been focused to detect changes in concrete elements induced by stress, temperature, moisture or chemical attacks by permanent monitoring. Techniques as Coda Wave Interferometry can resolve changes in ultrasonic velocity in the order of 1*10-5. In addition, many researchers believe that the investigation of nonlinear effects can be used to characterize damages. The presentation will give a wrap up of ultrasonic techniques currently used in practice. This will include echo based methods as multi-channel/multi-offset imaging of structural elements using commercial and prototype devices. Imaging methods as SAFT and RTM will be shortly discussed. The focus will be on the emerging techniques used for monitoring. New types of sensors will be presented as well as the devices used in laboratory and field applications. Insight will be given on the various influence factors on ultrasonic signals and various ways of feature extraction and data processing. The results of lab experiments will be shown to demonstrate the detection of various kind of damages from mechanical load, ASR, corrosion to fatigue. The experiences with or first installations in real constructions (bridges, tunnel) will also be presented.
Ultrasonic methods are well established in various aspects of concrete testing. They are used for imaging the interior geometry of constructions, estimation of concrete strength or monitoring lab investigations. However, so far the detection of distributed damages, especially in an early stage, has been almost impossible. The arrival of new technologies as deep penetration ultrasonic echo devices, new imaging techniques, embedded transducers for permanent monitoring and sensitive data processing techniques adopted from seismology have opened new fields of work. Recent research has been focused to detect changes in concrete elements induced by stress, temperature, moisture or chemical attacks.
To provide better means for a safe and effective monitoring of cemented waste packages including prediction tools to assess the future integrity development during pre-disposal activities, several digital tools are evaluated and improved in the frame of the EC funded project PREDIS. Safety enhancement (e. g. less exposure of testing personnel) and cost effectiveness are part of the intended impact. The work includes but is not limited to inspection methods such as muon imaging, wireless sensors integrated into waste packages as well as external package and facility monitoring such as remote fiber optical sensors. The sensors applied will go beyond radiation monitoring and include proxy parameters important for long term integrity assessment (e. g. internal pressure). Sensors will also be made cost effective to allow the installation of much more sensors compared to current practice. The measured data will be used in digital twins of the packages for specific simulations (geochemical, integrity) providing a prediction of future behavior. Machine Learning techniques trained by the characterization of older packages will help to connect the models to the actual data. All data (measured and simulated) will be collected in a joint data base and connected to a decision framework to be used at actual facilities. The paper includes detailed information about the various tools under consideration, their connection and first results of our research.
Ultrasonic methods are well established in various aspects of concrete testing. They are used for imaging the interior geometry of constructions, estimation of concrete strength or monitoring lab investigations. However, so far the detection of distributed damages, especially in an early stage, has been almost impossible. The arrival of new technologies as embedded transducers and sensitive data processing techniques adopted from seismology has opened new field of work. Recent research has been focused to detect changes in concrete elements induced by stress, temperature, moisture or chemical attacks by permanent monitoring. Techniques as Coda Wave Interferometry can resolve changes in ultrasonic velocity in the order of 1*10-5. In addition, many researchers believe that the investigation of nonlinear effects can be used to characterize damages.
The workshop will give a wrap up of ultrasonic techniques currently used in practice. This will include echo based methods as multi-channel/multi-offset imaging of structural elements using commercial and prototype devices. Imaging methods as SAFT and RTM will be shortly discussed.
The focus will be on the emerging techniques used for monitoring. New types of sensors will be presented as well as the devices used in laboratory and field applications. Insight will be given on the various influence factors on ultrasonic signals and various ways of feature extraction and data processing. The results of lab experiments will be shown to demonstrate the detection of various kind of damages from mechanical load, ASR, corrosion to fatigue. The experiences with or first installations in real constructions (bridges, tunnel) will also be presented.
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.
Seismic interferometry (SI) deals either with the sensible detection of changes in the subsurface or with the reconstruction of virtual signals between two receivers by crosscorrelation of signals from diffuse sources. These concepts can be applied in NDT in civil engineering for various purposes, e. g. to detect changes in bridges. Here it is demonstrated using data from a reference structure on our test site. Practical applications can be expected in the very near future.
Die Überwachung von Bauteilen aus Stahl- oder Spannbeton mit Ultraschall hat in Labor- und Technikumsversuchen schon vielversprechende Ergebnisse gezeigt. Besonders gute Resultate wurden dabei mit eingebetteten Ultraschalltrans-ducern und bei Auswertung der Daten mit der hochsensiblen Codawelleninterferometrie erzielt. Erfasst werden können neben Temperatur- und Feuchteeffekten auch Belastungszustände und jegliche Art von Schädigung, die mit Mikro- oder Makrorissbildung einhergeht.
Seit 2019 untersucht die DFG-Forschergruppe 2825 „CoDA“ (Sprecher: Prof. Christoph Gehlen, TU München) ver-schiedenste Aspekte dieser innovativen Technologie mit dem Ziel, Einflussgrößen quantitativ zu erfassen, Umweltein-flüsse zu korrigieren und 3D-Auswerteverfahren zu verbessern. Final soll eine am Bauwerk einsatzfähige Methode ent-stehen, die klassische Monitoringverfahren ergänzt und erweitert sowie Input zu einem Update des statischen Systems liefert.
Aufgaben der BAM in der Forschergruppe ist neben Verbesserung und Adaptierung der Messsystem und Sensorik auch Langzeitversuche an einem Großobjekt und Testinstallationen an Realbauwerken. Hierzu liegen erste Ergebnisse vor, die zeigen, dass die Technologie auch außerhalb des Labors einsatzfähig ist.
Challenging new constructions and ageing infrastructure are increasing the demand for permanent monitoring of loads and condition. Various methods and sensors are used for this purpose. But the technologies available today have difficulties in detecting slowly progressing locally confined damages. Extensive investigations or instrumentations are required so far for this purpose. In this study we present new sensors and data processing methods for ultrasonic transmission, which can be used for non-destructive long term monitoring of concrete. They can be mounted during construction or thereafter. Larger volumes can be monitored by a limited number of sensors for changes of material properties. The principles of ultrasonic transmission and influencing factors are presented. This latter include load, damages as well as environmental parameters as temperature or moisture. Various methods for data processing, e. g. coda wave interferometry are introduced. They allow the detection of very small changes in the medium. The embedded sensors are shown including mounting and operation. Application examples so far include small scale laboratory freeze-thaw experiments, localizing loads in larger concrete models, monitoring load effects on real structures as well as detecting acoustic events. Some sensors are operating already for several years. The sensors can be used as transmitter or receivers or switched between both roles. While most of the previous experiments have been active (at least one sensor serving as transmitter), new studies show that the sensors are useful as well for passive measurements, e. g. in acoustic emission or time reversal experiments. Besides application in civil engineering our setups can also be used for model studies in geosciences.
Seismic methods are increasingly used to improve ultrasonic imaging and monitoring of concrete. At BAM, we are research mainly the use of Reverse Time Migration to get better images from ultrasonic echo data of thick, complex concrete structures. Coda wave interferometry is used to detect subtle changes in concrete constructions, e. g. using embedded ultasonic transducers.
Previous work has shown that ultrasonic monitoring using externally applied or embedded transducers and imaging methods based on coda wave interferometry are able to detect subtle changes in concrete elements. In this study, a limited number of embedded transducers has been used to monitor changes in several 12 m long two-span concrete beams subjected to point or linear loads until failure.
The ultrasonic results showed the high sensitivity to stress changes and the nonlinear character of the associated effects. However, the ultrasonic features showed a very good correlation to several conventional monitoring parameters. For higher loads (significant amount of cracking), the technique had to be modified to cope with large wave velocity variations and high decorrelation compared to the reference signal.
Using a very simple imaging procedure, the 2D stress field inside the beam has been visualized including inhomogeneities and artifact at places where cracking occurred at higher loads. The technique has the potential to be included in real time monitoring systems.
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.
Zusammenfassung Im Rahmen eines Forschungsvorhabens an der RWTH Aachen wurden mehrere Spannbetondurchlaufträger bis zum Versagen belastetet. Neben umfangreicher konventioneller Messtechnik wurden zusätzlich innovative Messmethoden durch die Bundesanstalt für Materialforschung und –prüfung (BAM) getestet. Darunter waren eingebettete Ultraschall-Transducer, deren Daten mit einer neuartigen Methode, der Codawelleninterferometrie (CWI), ausgewertet wurden. Dieses Verfahren detektiert auch kleinste Änderungen im Signal und in der Wellengeschwindigkeit gegenüber einer Referenzmessung. Hiermit können Belastungs- und Strukturänderungen sowie Schäden sehr viel sensibler angezeigt werden als bei konventionellen Ultraschallmessungen. Durch eine Modifikation des Verfahrens mit gleitender Referenz können aber auch starke Veränderungen im Material, wie sie bei Bruchversuchen auftreten, erfasst werden. In den Versuchen gelang es mit Netzwerken aus bis zu 20 Ultraschall-Transducern, Spannungskonzentrationen und Rissbildungen qualitativ zu detektieren und zu verfolgen, ohne dass die Sensoren direkt am Ort der Änderung angebracht sein müssen.
This contribution introduces an investigation of a large-scale prestressed concrete bridge model (“BLEIB” structure at the BAM-TTS open air test site) by means of on-site cooperative measurements. This bridge has an external post-tensioning system and has been instrumented with the ultrasonic transducers, temperature sensors and optical fibers for Distributed Acoustic Sensing (DAS). Our experiment was designed to test the suitability of the novel 6C sensors developed within the framework of the GIOTTO project – the IMU50. The IMU50 sensor enables vibration measurements in translation along three axes and rotation around three axes. The geophone sensors were considered for complementary measurements of vertical velocity response. In the experiment, several perturbations were achieved by controlling the external influence factors such as loading and prestressing changes. The aim of the integrated measurement strategy was to fully observe the results of the condition change and to verify the effectiveness of multiple sensors for bridge monitoring.
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 presentation will give an overview on non-destructive testing techniques being developed at the Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing, Germany (BAM). This includes ultrasonic methods, ground penetration radar, Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS), infrared thermography, pile testing, sensor technology and building scanner. A focus of the talk will be ultrasonic methods, which are well established in various aspects of concrete testing. They are used for imaging the interior geometry of constructions, estimation of concrete strength or monitoring lab investigations. However, so far the detection of distributed damages, especially in an early stage, has been almost impossible. The arrival of new technologies as embedded transducers and sensitive data processing techniques adopted from seismology has opened new field of work. Recent research has been focused to detect changes in concrete elements induced by stress, temperature, moisture or chemical attacks by permanent monitoring. Techniques as Coda Wave Interferometry can resolve changes in ultrasonic velocity in the order of 1*10-5. In addition, many researchers believe that the investigation of nonlinear effects can be used to characterize damages. The presentation will give a wrap up of ultrasonic techniques currently used in practice. This will include echo based methods as multi-channel/multi-offset imaging of structural elements using commercial and prototype devices. Imaging methods as SAFT and RTM will be shortly discussed. The focus will be on the emerging techniques used for monitoring. New types of sensors will be presented as well as the devices used in laboratory and field applications. Insight will be given on the various influence factors on ultrasonic signals and various ways of feature extraction and data processing. The results of lab experiments will be shown to demonstrate the detection of various kind of damages from mechanical load, ASR, corrosion to fatigue. The experiences with our first installations in real constructions (bridges, tunnel) will also be presented.
Ultrasonic monitoring, making use of the sensitivity of the coda of repeated transmission meas-urements to changes in stress, temperature, moisture, as well as localized or distributed damage, has gotten at-tention in structural health monitoring (SHM) research recently. Analysis methods such as coda wave inter-ferometry (CWI), including its nonlinear extension, have been shown to be able to measure ultrasonic wave velocity changes with a 1∙10-5 resolution, while indicators such as cross-correlation or cross-coherence have been used to distinguish between reversible and irreversible changes. Several small- and large-scale laboratory experiments have demonstrated that stress changes in structures can be captured or damage detected in a very early stage. The use of this technique for pre-warning before failure are currently under investigation, as well as detailed research on the physical causes and the connection between ultrasonic wave properties and materi-al/structural behavior. Recently, several of large-scale laboratory and real structures have been instrumented with embedded ultrasonic transducers to gather experience and evidence on how to use this technology in re-al-world applications. Preliminary results from installations on a new bridge, an existing bridge, a tunnel, a la-boratory earthquake test as well as a historic stadium in Germany, Poland, and the United States, respectively, are presented. Environmental influences (mainly temperature) and validation by load tests are discussed.
Recently developed new transducers for ultrasonic transmission, which can be embedded right into concrete, are now used for non-destructive permanent monitoring of concrete. They can be installed during construction or thereafter. Large volumes of concrete can be monitored for changes of material properties by a limited number of transducers. The transducer design, the main properties as well as installation procedures are presented. It is shown that compressional waves with a central frequency of 62 kHz are mainly generated around the transducer's axis. The transducer can be used as a transmitter or receiver. Application examples demonstrate that the transducers can be used to monitor concrete conditions parameters (stress, temperature,
) as well as damages in an early state or the detection of acoustic events (e.g., crack opening). Besides application in civil engineering our setups can also be used for model studies in geosciences.
Informationen zu in Betonbauteilen stattfindenden Umlagerungsprozessen sowie Druckspannungsverteilungen können mit konventioneller Messtechnik bislang nicht zweifelsfrei beantwortet werden. Ultraschallmessungen mit eingebetteten Sensoren könnten hier eine sinnvolle Ergänzung zur konventionellen Messtechnik sein. Durch Einsatz der Codawelleninterferometrie (CWI) sind hiermit schon sehr kleine Änderungen im Material detektierbar.
Um diese neue Methodik zu evaluieren, wurde das Forschungsprojekt „Querkrafttragfähigkeit von Spannbetonbrücken – Erfassung von Spannungszuständen in den Spannbetonversuchsträgern mit Ultraschallsensoren“ durch die Bundesanstalt für Straßenwesen (BASt) initiiert. In diesem Projekt wurden durch die Bundesanstalt für Materialforschung und –prüfung (BAM) Ultraschall-Transducer in mehrere Spannbetonträger des Instituts für Massivbau der RWTH Aachen eingebettet, die anschließend bis zum Bruch belastet wurden.
Der Belastungsversuch an einem der Spannbetondurchlaufträger zeigte das große Potential dieser Methodik. Die im Netzwerk erfassten Änderungen der Ultraschallwellengeschwindigkeit geben die Spannungsverhältnisse im Längsschnitt des Trägers schon bei sehr niedrigen Belastungen qualitativ richtig wieder und zeigen bei hohen Belastungen eine gute Korrelation zum Rissbild. Dabei weisen räumliche Anomalien und Änderungen in der Charakteristik der Geschwindigkeitsänderungen oft schon auf Rissbildung hin, wenn diese noch nicht an der Oberfläche sichtbar ist. Dies zeigt das Potential im Hinblick auf eine Frühwarnung. Hierfür und ebenso in Bezug auf eine Quantifizierung der Effekte ist aber noch Entwicklungsarbeit notwendig. Ein Vorteil der Methodik ist, dass die Transducer nicht direkt am Ort der Änderung platziert werden müssen und einen relativ großen Bereich um die Transducer herum erfassen.
The propagation of ultrasonic waves in concrete is affected by its micro- and macro-structure, geometry and properties as well as external influences as stress, temperature or moisture. In addition, age and degradation have a strong influence. Therefore, Ultrasound has been used to monitor concrete samples and structures since decades. However, early applications using conventional techniques as time-of flight or changes in amplitudes have been limited to detect changes in a late stage close to serviceability or ultimate load states.
Around 2000, several new, more sensitive techniques adopted from geophysics or other field of material sciences have been introduced to research in ultrasonic monitoring of concrete. The most discussed methodologies are coda wave interferometry, a technique which allows to detect very subtle changes from repeated ultrasonic measurements. Nonlinear acoustic techniques help to identify e. g. cracks even in an inhomogeneous background. Both techniques can be combined.
This paper reviews methods and results achieved so far on the laboratory scale and with full scale models the directions for future research and application is given as well.
Ultrasonic transmission measurements are used to monitor concrete elements mostly on a laboratory scale since decades.
Recently, coda wave interferometry, a technique adapted from seismology, has been introduced to civil Engineering experiments. It can be used to reveal subtle changes in concrete samples and even large construction elements without having a transducer directly at the location where the change is taking place. The methodology works best with embedded transducers to avoid coupling issues or excessive environmental influence. These transducers can be used for newly built and existing structures. Recently, large concrete beams have been equipped with a network of transducers and loaded until failure. Using code wave interferometry, it was possible to visualize stress fields and damaged areas.
Fatigue is one of the most prevalent issues, which directly influences the service life expectancy of concrete structures. Fatigue has been investigated for years for steel structures. However, recent findings suggest that concrete structures may also be significantly subjected to fatigue phenomena that could lead to premature failure of certain structural elements. To date, fatigue of reinforced concrete has been given little focus. Knowledge on the influence factors and durability/capacity effects on this material should be improved. Current technological means to measure fatigue in civil structures like bridges and wind turbines (both onshore and offshore) are outdated, imprecise and inappropriate.
Meanwhile, this topic has got much more attention as time-variant loading on concrete structures plays an increasing role, e.g. in bridges with increasing traffic and heavier trucks, and for wind turbines for renewable energy production, e.g. for offshore wind turbine support structures affected by wind and waves.
The European Innovative Training Networks (ITN) Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions project INFRASTAR (Innovation and Networking for Fatigue and Reliability Analysis of Structures - Training for Assessment of Risk) provides research training for 12 PhD students. The project aims to improve knowledge for optimizing the design of new structures as well as for more realistic verification of structural safety and more accurate prediction of the remaining fatigue lifetime of existing concrete structures.
First, the INFRASTAR research framework is detailed. Then it will be exemplified through the presentation of the major results of the four PhD students involved in the work package dealing with auscultation and monitoring. This includes the development and improvement of Fiber Optics (FO) and Coda Wave Interferometry (CWI) for crack sizing and imagery, new sensor technologies and integration, information management, monitoring strategy for fatigue damage investigation and lifetime prediction.
Multi-sensory monitoring and ultrasound for quality assurance at underground sealing structures
(2023)
Within the safety concepts of underground disposal sites of nuclear waste, engineered barriers play an important role. As these sealing structures have high demands concerning integrity, we aim at advancing the available construction materials, monitoring, and inspection techniques within the project SealWasteSafe. A specifically developed alkali-activated material is compared to classical salt concrete. A comprehensive multi-sensory monitoring scheme is used at 150-340 l specimens to monitor setting and hardening of both materials. All sensors are demonstrated to resist the highly alkaline environments. Besides cabled and wireless temperature and humidity of the materials, strain variations using fibre optic sensors and acoustic emissions are recorded over periods of at least 28 days, partly for more than eight months. After hardening of the specimens, further nondestructive evaluations using ultrasonic echo and thermographic measurements are conducted.
Preliminary results proof the suitability of the tested sensors and clearly highlight differences between the tested materials. Particularly, the newly developed alkali-activated material shows lower acoustic emission activity indicating less cracking activity. Additionally, unique ultrasonic methods will enable better images of potential internal objects and cracks at in-situ sealing structures. A largescale ultrasonic system is optimised to reliably detect objects at a depth exceeding 9 m while still obtaining a good resolution. Modelling studies show the potential of further increasing the distance between individual transducer arrays. Additionally, a new ultrasonic borehole probe using phased arrays allowing for beam focussing is constructed and tested. Laboratory measurements at a halfcylindrical concrete specimen coincide well with the previous modelling. In total, the presented safe materials, detailed monitoring approaches and ultrasonic quality assurance methods will help to obtain safe sealing structures within salt as a host rock. The concepts can partly be transferred to sealing structures in alternative host rocks and will also be valuable for non-nuclear waste repositories.
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 presentation summarizes the opbjectives and the progress of the EURATOM project PREDIS (pre-disposal management of radioactive waste) and its workpackage 7 in particular. Focus is on the development of wireless sensors for monitoring radioactive waste packages, measuring radiation, temperature, pressure and humidity.
Improperly built or managed tailing dams pose major risks to human lives and the environment. Research for risk reduction by new technologies including slurry handlings, stochastic modelling, development of a parameter framework as well as work on legislation and authorisation procedures will be done in the EC-funded project TAILSAFE. Focus of this paper is on geophysial techniques for structure investigation and monitoring.