7.2 Ingenieurbau
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- 7.2 Ingenieurbau (170) (entfernen)
Due to the many possible applications, the uncomplicated production and the high application range, reinforced concrete is a widely used building material. This large range of physical material properties still poses an engineering challenge in determining all necessary requirements for predicting dynamic effects under impact load.
Many aspects of impact have already been examined and some correlations have been studied intensively. Examples are the work of Lastunen and Booker, who studied the influence of projectile properties on the impact form. Li has also investigated the local effects of an impact. The field of detailed damage analysis has not been in focus so far.
This presentation shows some studies in medium-velocity impact with the focus on post-impact damage evaluation. The impactor is modified so that the test plates show low penetration on the top and scabbing on the bottom. With the unique tomography lab test stand at BAM the plate is scanned after the impact and the damage is analyzed. Cracks and scabbing are made visible with a reconstruction. The comparison of simulation and tomography allows to create prognosis models for damage characterization.
This presentation deals with the phenomenology and design of pile foundations for offshore wind turbines, and is divided in two lectures.
The first lecture presents a brief introduction to the context and peculiarities of such foundations, and then focuses on the particular case of axially loaded piles. This part is most relevant for the relatively slender piles of the multi-pile substructures (i.e. jackets and tripods). A clear distinction between physical phenomenology and practical design is drawn here.
The second lecture continues with the case of lateraly loaded offshore piles, which bears most relevance for the case of the monopile foundations. Here again, a clear separation between physical reality and design methods is intended.
Finally, the last part of the second lecture introduces several advanced topics which lie outside the classical design approaches, namely the cyclic pile fatigue and the so-called pile setup (i.e. the time effects on the axial pile capacity). The relevance of these two topics is illustrated with experimental results from a field testing campaign on real large-scale piles.
Remediation of Cracks Formed in Grouted Connections of Offshore Energy Structures under Static Loads
(2018)
The future energy demand necessitates the exploration of all potential energy sources both onshore and offshore. Global trend has shifted towards offshore energy, which can be obtained from either carbon intensive or renewable options, hence requiring structures such as rigs, platforms, and monopiles. Most of these structures adopt easily installable construction techniques, where lower foundation need to be connected with the super structure by mean of grouted composite joints. Generally, these composite connections have exterior sleeve, interior pile and infill grout. Being located in remote offshore conditions, connections can experience considerable adverse loading during their lifetimes. Degradations were reported inside similar connections, which were installed in last three decades. Besides, grouting in the offshore sites may often be proven difficult, which eventually leads to reduced capacity of connections in the long run. Thus, repair and rehabilitation of such connections should be planned ahead to minimize operational delays and costs in the future. This study aims at characterizing the nature of crack generation in grouted connections and thereby identifying the potential of repair using suitable repair material. Scaled grouted joints were manufactured using a novel mold, and connections were loaded under static load to visualize the main failure pattern. The failure mechanism and loading capacity are found compatible to previous results from earlier literature. Grouted connection was then repaired using cementitious injectable grout. The effectiveness of the repair system is also discussed.
Design challenges for offshore wind-farms. From foundation mechanics to wind-farm aerodynamics
(2018)
This talk provides a brief introduction on general engineering aspects of offshore wind energy production. Then some geomechanical issues for the foundation of OWTs into the seabed are introduced, while the results from experimental investigations and coupled computational analysis are discussed.
In the second part of the seminar, the hydromechanical Wave–Tower interaction is firstly discussed. Then, some general aspects of the windfarm aerodynamics are introduced. On the one hand, some modelling possibilities for the wake analysis of single turbines and turbine groups are discussed. And on the other hand the relevance of such analyses for a proper windfarm layout optimization is pointed out.
Concerning the geomechanical issues the talk shows that: i) The pile’s bearing capacity can degrade under cyclic loading (waves, wind, …). ii) The time effects can be relevant: Capacity improvement can be substantial, but also fragile. iii) There are cyclic PWP effects: Cyclic interaction with pore water may lead to soil softening and an uncoupled analysis (current design practice) is potentially unsafe.
And concerning the hydromechanical and aerodynamical design considerations, this seminar shows that: i) Numerical analysis of turbine’s interaction with wind/waves is useful and affordable. ii) Simplified models can provide insight into windfarm aerodynamics. iii) Turbulent wake analysis is very relevant for the windfarm layout.
Die Grundidee einer Schwingungsminderung ist es eine tiefe Eigenfrequenz der Struktur zu erreichen, so dass höhere Frequenzen abgemindert werden. Das gilt für die Minderung an der Quelle, zum Beispiel einem Eisenbahngleis, und für die Minderung am Empfänger, dem Gebäude. Die Eigenfrequenz ermittelt man aus dem Verhältnis der Auflagersteifigkeit und der Masse. Wie ist die Masse bei einem Gebäude zu wählen? Und wie ist die Untergrund-steifigkeit zu berücksichtigen? Als Referenzsituation ohne Minderungsma߬nahme? Der Beitrag bringt Rechenergebnisse zu abgefederten Gebäuden mit einfachen und komplexen (FE-) Modellen, Mess- und Rechenergebnisse zur Schwingungsübertragung von unabge-federten Gebäuden. Es wird der Einfluss der Abstimmfrequenz, der Bodensteifigkeit und der „starren“ Gebäudemasse untersucht. Die komplexen Gebäudemodelle erlauben, neben der Berechnung einer elastischen Gebäudelagerung, auch die Variation von Gebäudepara¬metern zur Reduktion der Deckenschwingungen. Den Ergebnissen bei der Erschütterungs-übertragung in Gebäude werden zwei ähnliche Beispiele zur elastischen Maschinenlagerung und zur elastischen Gleislagerung gegenübergestellt.
Explosion-induced ground vibrations have been measured at several places. Results about the wave propagation are shown in this contribution. The particle velocities of the soil have been measured at up to 1000 m distance from the explosion and are presented as time records (seismograms) and one-third octave band spectra (transfer functions). The results are compared with the results of hammer impacts. The seismograms clearly show different wave types, compressional waves of the air, the water and the soil, and the Rayleigh wave. The hammer impacts yield good results up to 100 m and incorporate higher frequencies at about 50 Hz, whereas the explosion results in a ground vibration with frequencies around 10 Hz and a longer range of influence. Explosion and hammer excitations are evaluated for the wave velocities of the soil by using the wavenumber and the spatial auto-correlation method. The attenuation of the ground vibration amplitudes A with distance r can well be presented by a power law A ~ r -q. This type of amplitude-distance law and the corresponding power q > 1 are substantiated in the contribution. The influence of the charge weight W is evaluated as an additional power law A ~ W -p for each measuring site. The power is found quite similarly around q 0.6 as all sites have a medium soft soil such as sand and clay. The obtained amplitude-charge-distance law can be used to predict the explosion-induced ground and building vibrations at other sites.
Use of DEM-LBM modeling to prove the relevance of free jet model for soil erosion by impinging jet
(2018)
The aim of this study is to provide a micromechanical insight into the mechanisms taking place during the erosion of a cohesive granular material driven by a fluid flow, the objectives are summarized as follows:
Perform numerical erosion tests.
Parallelization of the code (Gpu).
Extensive parametric analysis => rely micro parameters (eg. Cohesion) to macro parameters (eg. Soil erodibility, mechanical strengths).
This presentation deals with the phenomenology and design of pile foundations for offshore wind turbines, and is divided in two lectures.
The first lecture presents a brief introduction to the context and peculiarities of such foundations, and then focuses on the particular case of axially loaded piles. This part is most relevant for the relatively slender piles of the multi-pile substructures (i.e. jackets and tripods). A clear distinction between physical phenomenology and practical design is drawn here.
The second lecture continues with the case of lateraly loaded offshore piles, which bears most relevance for the case of the monopile foundations. Here again, a clear separation between physical reality and design methods is intended.
Finally, the last part of the second lecture introduces several advanced topics which lie outside the classical design approaches, namely the cyclic pile fatigue and the so-called pile setup (i.e. the time effects on the axial pile capacity). The relevance of these two topics is illustrated with experimental results from a field testing campaign on real large-scale piles.
This talk provides a brief introduction on general engineering aspects of offshore wind energy production. Some geomechanical issues for the foundation of OWTs into the seabed are introduced, while the results from experimental investigations and coupled computational analysis are discussed.
In the second part of the seminar, the hydromechanical Wave–Tower interaction is firstly discussed. Then, some general aspects of the windfarm aerodynamics are introduced. On the one hand, some modelling possibilities for the wake analysis of single turbines and turbine groups are discussed. And on the other hand the relevance of such analyses for a proper windfarm layout optimization is pointed out.
Concerning the geomechanical issues the talk shows that: i) The pile’s bearing capacity can degrade under cyclic loading (waves, wind, …). ii) The time effects can be relevant: Capacity improvement can be substantial, but also fragile. iii) There are cyclic PWP effects: Cyclic interaction with pore water may lead to soil softening and an uncoupled analysis (current design practice) is potentially unsafe.
And concerning the hydromechanical and aerodynamical design considerations, this seminar shows that: i) Numerical analysis of turbine’s interaction with wind/waves is useful and affordable. ii) Simplified models can provide insight into windfarm aerodynamics. iii) Turbulent wake analysis is very relevant for the windfarm layout.
Superplasticizer and shrinkage reducing admixture dosages for microfine cement in grout systems
(2018)
Grouts have numerous applications including crack repair as maintenance in construction industries. Microfine cements are intensively used for high strength mortar and grout products. They are ideal for injection grouting in structural repair. Such grouts should have suitable rheological properties to be injectable, especially those used in repair and rehabilitation. The use of superplasticizers (SP) in these products is thus becoming increasingly crucial to achieve favorable workability and viscosity properties. A difficulty in such grouts is the plastic shrinkage due to finer particles used. It is thus necessary to determine optimum SP and shrinkage reducing admixture (SRA) dosages for a microfine cement based grout. In this study, a saturation dosage was decided from two Polycarboxylate ether (PCE) based SPs in relation to neat cement using slump flow and rheological parameters. A range of grout mixtures was formulated containing micro silica (MS) and fly ash (FA), and tested for suitable rheological and mechanical parameters. Based on the results, a grout mixture with MS and FA was selected to determine optimum SRA content. According to the results, a SP dosage of 3% by weight of neat cement is sufficient to achieve saturation. The grout material including MS and FA can produce comparable properties to neat cement grout. MS is found to improve compressive strength within the range considered, whereas a higher FA content provides favourable rheological properties. Finally, a SRA dosage of 4%, which could reduce the shrinkage by about 43% after 28d days, is determined for the grout system.
The authors are currently investigating the possibility to apply compaction grouting for offshore pile foundations (Jacket piles as well as monopiles) as a possible retrofitting technique for an optimised foundation concept. In this research project, we are developing a design approach aiming to predict the ideal amount and properties of a grout for a specific soil situation and desired improvement of pile bearing capacity after Installation and during service time. Both numerical and experimental tests have been carried out to investigate the injection process during which a highly viscous grout is injected into the soil under high pressure to displace and compact the surrounding soil without fracturing it. The implicit Material Point Method (MPM) based on a mixed formulation is the numerical technique chosen to deal with the expected large deformations and the arbitrary shape of the developing grout bulb. The usage of MPM prevents both the need of remeshing and the numerical instability induced by extensive mesh distortion. For validation with experimental results, we have constructed a testing chamber with one transparent sidewall. This chamber enables us to observe the injection process directly at the transparent vertical window and to measure the in-plane soil displacements and strains by means of the Digital Image Correlation (DIC) technique.
The results already reveal the interrelation of soil and grout properties for a successful usage of this common ground improvement technique.
Right from the beginning of applying SHM to bridge structures it was obvious that environmental based perturbations on the measurement significantly influence the ability to identify structural damage. Strategies are needed to classify such effects and consider them appropriately in SHM. Various methods have been developed and analyzed to separate environmental based effects from damage induced changes in the measures. Generally, two main approaches have emerged from research activity in this fields: (a) statistics based tools analyzing patterns in the data or in computed parameters and (b) methods, utilizing the structural model of the bridge taking into account environmental as well as damage based changes of stiffness values.
With the back-ground of increasing affordability of sensing and computing technology, effort should be made to increase sensitivity, reliability and robustness of procedures, separating environmental from damage caused changes in SHM measures. The contribution describes both general strategies and points out their Advantages and drawbacks. As basis, a review on relevant methods was conducted. The aim of the study is to classify approaches for separating damage describing information from environmental based perturbations in dependency of the SHM objective. And such, it is intended to describe a best practice in designing concepts for Monitoring infrastructure, naturally effected by environmental influences.
Within the presented research project, experimental and numerical investigations were performed to develop a thin-shelled, modular, mobile element system made of a micro-reinforced ultra-high-performance ductile concrete (DUCON®). Material parameters were experimentally determined to adapt the material model within the numerical analysis applying the Drucker-Prager relationship. Afterwards, for validation of the numerical models, quasi-static and high-velocity impact tests were performed on plate-like structures. Finally, a suitable geometry of transportable barrier elements will be designed, which provides a maximum of resistance against impact by a minimum of weight and a maximum of mobility.
Unterraumbasierte Detektion von Strukturschäden an Jacket-Gründungen von Offshore-Windenergieanlagen
(2018)
Die vorliegende Arbeit beschreibt die Adaption eines globalen, schwingungsbasierten Verfahrens zur frühzeitigen Erkennung von Strukturschäden an Gründungsstrukturen offshore installierter Windenergieanlagen (OWEA). Damit soll es, Betreibern von Offshore-Windparks ermöglicht werden, im Rahmen periodisch durchgeführter messtechnischer Überwachungsmaßnahmen mit einem gegenüber wiederkehrender Inspektionen wesentlich geringen Aufwand auftretende Schäden an der Struktur zuverlässig zu delektieren.
Das untersuchte und implementierte Verfahren basiert auf der Methode der stochastischen unterraumbasierten Schadensdetektion. Dabei erfolgt eine statistische Analyse des wiederkehrend messtechnisch aufgenommenen dynamischen Antwortverhaltens des mechanischen Systems. Mittels statistischem Test werden signifikante Änderungen in dessen Eigenstruktur und damit Schäden delektiert.
Im Rahmen der vorliegenden Arbeit wurden umfangreiche experimentelle als auch numerische Untersuchungen zur Sensitivität und Robustheit des beschriebenen Schadensindikators durchgeführt. Dazu sind zunächst an einem Labormodell mittels künstlich und reversibel eingebrachter Schäden grundlegende Analysen zu den Einflüssen signal- und verfahrensinhärenter Kenngrößen durchgeführt worden. Auf der Basis dieser Ergebnisse wurde im Anschluss mittels numerischer Analysen das Antwortverhalten von OWEA simuliert und der entwickelte Algorithmus zur Schadensdetektion an den so realisierten Datensätzen angewendet.
Anhand der Ergebnisse der Arbeit wird aufgezeigt, dass, vorausgesetzt die Windenergieanlage befindet sich in Parkposition, eine Detektion von schon geringen Schäden an Gründungs-strukturen mit dem beschriebenen Verfahren, auch unter Einsatz weniger Messaufnehmer, zuverlässig möglich ist.
Risslumineszenz
(2018)
Mit der Errichtung und der Inbetriebnahme des Windpark alpha ventus wurden umfangreiche Messungen an den Tragstrukturen und den Umgebungsparametern durchgeführt. Im Projekt Gigawind life wurde im TP1 ein Datenmanagementsystem zur kontinuierlichen und periodisch fortgeführten Datenauswertung für große Datenbestände (Big Data) entworfen und realisiert. Anhand von Performanceuntersuchungen konnte eine Verkürzung der Rechenzeit um den Faktor 10 in einem Rechencluster erreicht werden. Unter Anwendung einer Datenpipeline nach dem Publish/Subscribe Prinzip wird eine skalierbare Datenschnittstelle für Monitoringdaten vorgeschlagen.
The response of many geotechnical systems, whose structural behavior depends on shearing effect, is closely related to soil structure interaction phenomenon. Experimentally it is found that the localisation of these effect happens at a narrow soil layer next to the structure. Numerically, this behavior can be modelled through interface elements and adequate constitutive models. In this work, a constitutive model in the framework of Generalized Plasticity for sandy soils has been chosen to be adapted for the interface zone.
From the direct shear experiments a sandy soil at loose and dense states under different normal pressures is considered. The adapted constitutive model is able to reproduce contraction and dilatation of the soil according to its relative density and it shows a good agreement with the experimental data.
Grouting is a universal repair and strengthening technique, which is constantly used for structural remediation of concrete components, trenches, mine subsidence, dam joints, restoration of masonry structures, and geological stabilizations. Having an extremely small particle size of only few microns, ultrafine cements are ideal for grouting applications due to their superior permeability and compressive strength properties of the hardened cement paste compared to that of the less-expensive, but coarser ordinary Portland cements. Supplementary cementitious materials (SCMs) are often used to replace ultrafine cement in order to modify certain properties and to reduce costs. The aim of this experimental study is to investigate the effect of three supplementary materials: microsilica (MS), fly ash (FA), and metakaolin (MK) on the workability, and mechanical properties of an ultrafine cement based grout with a constant water-binder ratio and constant superplasticizer content. Maximum percentages of replacement with ultrafine cement were 6% by volume of cement for MS and 16% for FA, and MK. In general, results suggest that the workability is improved by addition of FA, whereas is reduced, when modified with MS and MK. The compressive strength of grout after cement replacement remains comparable to that of pure cement grout. However, there is a tendency of the MS to positively affect the compressive strength opposite to FA, whereas flexural strength is positively affected by FA. Based on the results, it is evident that grouts with Hägerman cone flow more than 500 mm and compressive strength of more than 90 MPa after 28 days can be produced.
Surface erosion of a cohesive granular soil by a fluid flow is investigated numerically by coupling the Lattice Boltzmann Method (LBM) for the fluid phase and the Discrete Element Method (DEM) for describing the motion of the solid particles. In addition, inter-particles cohesion is insured by a contact model featuring a paraboloidal yield surface. The use of a fully resolved LBM-DEM coupling technique is currently limited due to the computational cost when simulating a large number of particles. This issue can be overcome using the graphics processing unit (GPU) thanks to ist massively parallel hardware architecture. Here, we first present a 2D GPU implementation of LBM-DEM coupling for a granular assembly. The GPU implementations are approximatively 30 times faster than a single core CPU version. Then, we apply the parallelization technique to practical erosional cases, namely the jet erosion test (JET) and the shear-driven erosion by a Couette flow. These numerical tests aim to relate micro parameters of a cohesive material (eg. cohesion) to macro parameters (eg. soil erodibility, mechanical strengths). Preliminary results show that micromechanical features indeed provide a novel insight of soil erosion phenomena.
The local asymptotic approach is promising for vibration-based fault diagnosis when associated to a subspace-based residual function and efficient hypothesis testing tools. It has the ability of detecting small changes in some chosen system parameters. In the residual function, the left null space of the observability matrix associated to a reference model is confronted to the Hankel matrix of output covariances estimated from test data. When this left null space is not perfectly known from a model, it should be replaced by an estimate from data to avoid model errors in the residual computation. In this paper, the asymptotic distribution of the resulting data-driven residual is analyzed and its covariance is estimated, which includes also the covariance related to the reference null space estimate. The importance of including the covariance of the reference null space estimate is shown in a numerical study.
Die Risikoanalyse ist ein formales Verfahren zur Unterstützung von Entscheidungen unter Unsicherheit und Risiko. Es ermöglicht eine Optimierung von Maßnahmen zur Verhinderung unerwünschter Konsequenzen. Der Vortrag stellt die aktuellen Aktivitäten an der BAM in dem Feld Risikoanalyse technischer System vor.
Measurements of ground and track vibrations have been performed at a high-speed line in northern Germany. Impacts on the track and the ground, and passages of different trains with different speeds on different tracks have been measured. Transfer functions of the soil are presented and approximated by theoretical soil models. By using these transfer functions, the measured ground vibration between 2 to 64 m distance from the track can be transformed into a load spectrum which can be used for predictions at other sites. The method is compared to the soil-dependent method of an emission spectrum at a certain distance (8 m for example). The influence of train type, speed and track type is discussed on the base of the different emission quantities and the original measurements. The strong influence of the track, ballast track and slab track, is analysed by a theoretical model in wavenumber domain. The response of the track to the passage of the static load is reduced by the stiffness of the slab, the deformation of the track as well as the impulse acting on the soil. Usually, the impulse on the soil should result in a slow quasi-static movement of the soil, slower at further distances. In a heterogeneous soil, however, the impulses from the static loads scatter and keep parts of the higher impulse frequency band. In this case the reduced impulse spectra of the slab track will yield reduced ground vibration in a certain frequency band. Additional (BAM and international) measurements will be used to discuss this and possible other explanations for the different ground vibration differences.
Im ersten Teil werden Methoden der Wellenanalyse vorgestellt, Seismogramme, Multistation Analysis of Surface Waves (MASW), f,v-Analyse (Dispersion aus zweifacher Fourier-Analyse), Spatial AutoCorrelation (SPAC, hier auch für deterministische Quellen), und auf Messungen in Deutschland, Österreich und der Schweiz angewendet. Mit den Wellengeschwindigkeiten des Bodens werden die Berechnungsgrundlagen für die Erschütterungsausbreitung im Boden und die Bauwerk-Boden-Wechselwirkung geschaffen.
Der zweite Teil beschäftigt sich mit der Wellensynthese, das heißt mit der Berechnung von Wellenfeldern (aus Wellenzahlintegralen). Die Rechnungen können wesentlich vereinfacht werden, wenn man die Dimensionsanalyse und Symmetrieüberlegungen ausnutzt, so dass maximal fünf dimensionslose Verschiebungsfunktionen verbleiben (im Vollraum sind es sogar nur zwei Verschiebungsfunktionen, die sich einfach explizit angeben lassen). Es gibt Ähnlichkeiten zwischen den Halbraum-Amplituden an der Oberfläche, den Halbraum-Amplituden in der Tiefe und der Wellenausbreitung im Vollraum. Die berechneten Wellenfelder (als Terzspektren in verschie-denen Entfernungen von der Erschütterungsquelle) werden verwendet, um die gemessene Übertragungsfunktionen des Bodens zu approximieren und Erschütterungen von Zugvorbeifahrten zu prognostizieren. Auch dies wird an einigen Messorten vorgeführt. Dabei werden einige gemessene Besonderheiten der Eisenbahnerschütterungen mit dem geschichteten Aufbau des Bodens erklärt.
Der dritte Teil beschäftigt sich mit der Anwendung der Wellenfelder beziehungsweise der Punkt-lastlösungen beziehungsweise der Greenschen Funktionen in der Randelementmethode. Es wird ein einfaches Prinzip der Herleitung der Randelementmethode vorgeführt. Bei einer beliebigen Berandung benötigt man neben den Verschiebungswellenfeldern auch die Spannungswellen-felder. Eine einfache Berechnung der Spannungswellenfelder wird vorgeführt, die im Vollraum auf drei Spannungsfunktionen, ähnlich einfach wie die Verschiebungsfunktionen, führt. Durch die Kopplung der Randelementmethode mit der Finite-Element-Methode können dann Probleme der Bauwerk-Boden-Wechselwirkung gelöst werden.
Der vierte Teil beschäftigt sich schließlich mit der Freifeld-Wellenanregung unter einem Gebäude und der Wellenanregung im Gebäude. Dabei geht es um die Wechselwirkung der Freifeldwellen mit starren oder flexiblen Fundamenten (Pfählen, Fundamentplatten) und den Übertragungs-faktoren zwischen dem Freifeld und dem Gebäude. Bei der Wellenanregung in einem Büro-gebäude in Wien konnten die gleichen Methoden wie bei der Wellenanregung im Boden eingesetzt werden, Seismogramme, MASW, Übertragungsfunktionen und Amplituden-Abstandsgesetze.
Identifying optimal inspection and repair strategies for offshore jacket structures is a challenging task. We pre-sent an approach, which is based on recent developments in the field of risk-based operation and maintenance planning at the structural system level. The approach utilizes heuristics to define inspection and repair strate-gies at the system level and to reduce the search space of possible strategies. For each defined strategy, the expected service life cost of inspection, repair and failure is evaluated based on simulated inspection and re-pair histories. Subset simulation is applied to compute the conditional repair and failure probabilities required for this analysis. It also forms the basis for simulating inspection and repair histories. The strategy that mini-mizes the expected service life cost is the optimal one in the set of pre-selected strategies. The underlying condition and performance model accounts for the stochastic dependence among the deterioration states of the different structural elements and the structural redundancy. The approach is demonstrated in a case study considering a jacket-type frame. In this study, we essentially vary the inspection interval, the minimum num-ber of inspected components and the target reliability, and identify the combination that minimizes the ex-pected total service life cost.
The worldwide spread of windfarms brings new challenges, especially for concrete structures as a part of towers, connecting joints and foundations of wind turbines. High-cyclic loadings in such structures lead to a high relevance of the subject of fatigue. A proper assessment of the fatigue strength of concrete demands therefore a basis of reliable experimental data and the development of standardized testing methods. This article presents first results of an ongoing research program of BAM (Bundesanstalt für Materialforschung und -prüfung) which is a part of a joint project (WinConFat) funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy. The subproject investigates the effects of size and slenderness of the specimens on the fatigue behaviour of high strength concrete at different stress levels. Not only the fatigue strength, but also the fatigue process itself is monitored by means of several measurement methods. Strain measurements are used to calculate the load dependent elastic modulus in the fatigue hysteresis as indicators for fatigue development. Furthermore, the application of non-destructive methods like acoustic emission analysis and ultrasonic measurement in laboratory tests gives a deeper insight into damage processes under cyclic loading. The results shall be used to improve design rules for concrete members under fatigue load and to develop or improve non-destructive techniques for in-service structural health monitoring.