This contribution attempts to shed light on the application of POD analyses and measurement uncertainty calculations in nondestructive testing of concrete structures to provide useful and quality-assured information for reliability assessments of our built environment - with an emphasis on ground penetrating radar. It is shown that signal processing techniques affect POD analysis results to varying degrees, that measurement uncertainties are useful to validate PODs, and that the utilization of both POD analysis and measurement uncertainty calculations can pave the way to NDT-based reliability assessment, which will be exemplarily demonstrated in conclusion – generally aiming to derive those maintenance strategies and actions that are in line with actual demands.
The dataset contains raw data gathered with the ultrasonic pulse-echo method on concrete specimens. The surfaces of the measuring objects were automatically scanned point by point. Pulse-echo measurements were performed at each of these measuring points. The test specimens represent two typical testing tasks in construction industry: the detection of objects and the determination of dimensions to describe the geometry of components. By automating the measurement process, the different test scenarios are examined with a high repeatability, precision and measuring point density. Longitu- dinal and transversal waves were used and the geometrical aperture of the testing system was varied. The low-frequency probes operate in a range of up to approximately 150 kHz. In addition to the specification of the geometrical dimensions of the individual probes, the directivity pattern and the sound field characteristics are provided. The raw data are stored in a universally readable format. The length of each time signal (A-scan) is two milliseconds and the sampling rate is two mega-samples per second. The provided data can be used for comparative studies in signal analysis, imag- ing and interpretation as well as for evaluation pur- poses in different, practically relevant testing scenarios.
This dataset contains raw data resulting from Impact-Echo measurements at the reference conrete block "Radarplatte", located at BAM (German Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing). This specimen has been described in detail by Niederleithinger et al. (2021), who applied muon tomography, ultrasonic echo measurements, radar and X-ray laminography to visualize its internal structure.
The Impact-Echo method is based on the excitation of the zero-group-velocity frequency of the first symmetric Lamb mode of a plate-like structure, in order to assess its thickness. Numerous publication elaborate on Impact-Echo theory, examples are (Gibson and Popovics 2005, Schubert and Köhler 2008 , Abraham and Popovics 2010).
The measurements have been conducted using a setup that contains only commercially available components. The setup consists of an Olson CTG-2 concrete thickness gauge (Olsen Instruments, USA) for actuation and sensing and an 8-bit NI USB-5132 digital storage oscilloscope (National Instruments, USA) combined with the Echolyst software (Schweizerischer Verein für technische Inspektionen (SVTI), Switzerland) for data acquisition.
Measurements were conducted using a grid of 23x23 points with a spacing of 50 mm. At each point 8192 samples were recorded at a sampling rate of 1 MS/s.
The dataset contains the (X,Y) location in mm of the individual measurement points as well as the raw measurement data at those points.
The data is provided in the formats *.mir/*.mhdr (Echolyst), *.npy (Python) and *.mat (Matlab) and *.csv to ease the import in various post-processing tools.