8.2 Zerstörungsfreie Prüfmethoden für das Bauwesen
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X-rays without X-rays: Can muon tomography provide pictures from within concrete and other objects?
(2024)
Until the 1980s radiography was used to inspect civil structures in case of special demands and showed a much better resolution than other NDT techniques. However, due to safety concerns and cost issues, this method is almost never used anymore. Meanwhile, non-destructive techniques such as ultrasound or
radar have found regular, successful practical application but sometimes suffer from limited resolution and accuracy, imaging artefacts or restrictions in detecting certain features when applied to reinforced or prestressed concrete inspection.
Muon tomography has received much attention recently. Muons are particles generated naturally by cosmic rays in the upper atmosphere and pose no risk to humans. Novel detectors and tomographic imaging algorithms have opened new fields of application, mainly in the nuclear sector, but also in spectacular cases such as the Egyptian pyramids.
As a first step towards practical application in civil engineering and as a proof of concept we used an existing system to image the interior of a reference reinforced 600 kg concrete block. Even with a yet not optimized setup for this kind of investigation, the muon imaging results have been at least of similar quality compared to ultrasonic and radar imaging, potentially even better. Recently, the research was expanded to more realistic testing problems such as the detection of voids in certain structural elements. However, before practical implementation, more robust, mobile, and affordable detectors would be required as well as user-Friendly imaging and simulation software.
The talk also discusses other applications , such as volcanology, mining and geothermal exploration.
The Large Aperture Ultrasound System (LAUS) developed at BAM is known for its ability to penetrate thick objects, especially concrete structures commonly used in nuclear waste storage and other applications in civil engineering. Although the current system effectively penetrates up to ~9 m, further optimization is imperative to enhance the safety and integrity of disposal structures for radioactive or toxic waste. This study focuses on enhancing the system’s efficiency by optimizing the transducer spacing, ensuring that resolution is not compromised. An array of twelve horizontal shear wave transducers was used to find a balance between penetration depth and resolution. Systematic adjustments of the spacing between transmitter and receiver units were undertaken based on target depth ranges of known reflectors at depth ranges from 5 m to 10 m. The trade-offs between resolution and artifact generation were meticulously assessed. This comprehensive study employs a dual approach using both simulations and measurements to investigate the performance of transducer units spaced at 10 cm, 20 cm, 30 cm, and 40 cm. We found that for depths up to 5 m, a spacing of 10 cm for LAUS transducer units provided the best resolution as confirmed by both simulations and measurements. This optimal distance is particularly effective in achieving clear reflections and a satisfactory signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) in imaging scenarios with materials such as thick concrete structures. However, when targeting depths greater than 10 m, we recommend increasing the distance between the transducers to 20 cm. This increased spacing improves the SNR in comparison to other spacings, as seen in the simulation of a 10 m deep backwall. Our results emphasize the critical role of transducer spacing in achieving the desired SNR and resolution, especially in the context of depth imaging requirements for LAUS applications. In addition to the transducer spacing, different distances between individual sets of measurement positions were tested. Overall, keeping the minimal possible distance between measurement position offsets provides the best imaging results at greater depths. The proposed optimizations for the LAUS in this study are primarily relevant to applications on massive nuclear structures for nuclear waste management. This research highlights the need for better LAUS efficiency in applications such as sealing structures, laying the foundation for future technological advances in this field.
The ultrasonic echo technique is widely used in non-destructive testing (NDT) of concrete objects for thickness measurements, geometry determinations and localization of built-in components. To improve ultrasonic imaging of complex concrete structures, we transferred a seismic imaging technique, the Reverse Time Migration (RTM), to NDT in civil engineering. RTM, in contrast to the conventionally used synthetic aperture focusing technique (SAFT) algorithms, considers all wavefield types and thus, can handle complex wave propagations in any direction with no limit on velocity variations and reflector dip. In this paper, we focused on the development, application and evaluation of a two-dimensional elastic RTM algorithm considering horizontally polarized shear (SH) waves only. We applied the elastic SH RTM routine to synthetic ultrasonic echo SH-wave data generated with a concrete model incorporating several steps and circular cavities. As these features can often be found in real-world NDT use cases, their imaging is extremely important. By using elastic SH RTM, we were able to clearly reproduce almost all reflectors inside the concrete model including the vertical step edges and the cross sections of the cavities.We were also capable to show that more features could be mapped compared to SAFT, and that imaging of complex reflectors could be sharpened compared to elastic P-SV (compressional-vertically polarized shear) RTM. Our promising results illustrate that elastic SH RTM has the potential to significantly enhance the reconstruction of challenging concrete structures, representing an important step forward for precise, high-quality ultrasonic NDT in civil engineering.
The through-life management of our constantly ageing infrastructure is a basic requirement in order to ensure their structural safety and serviceability. Each structure experiences deterioration processes with time leading to a decrease of structural safety and serviceability. The design of new structures considers the expected deterioration for a defined period, the design service life. However, a frequent survey of structural safety controlling structural condition should be mandatory and a maintenance plan should be an integral part of the design. In addition, many structures have exceeded their design service life already or are very close to it leading to an increasing demand for condition assessment. On the one hand, assumptions made during design are not valid any more due to change of the loads, e.g., increasing traffic loads in terms of number and weights. On the other hand, design codes evolved over time in such a way that existing structures do not comply with today’s standards. In all these cases, the through-life management is an important tool to maintain the accessibility of existing structures with known reliability.
In line with the new Model Code for Concrete Structures, which includes guidance for both – design of new structures and assessment of existing structures, the Task Group 3.3 focused on the compilation of a state-of-the-art guideline for the through-life management of existing concrete structures, including:
Data acquisition by testing and monitoring techniques;
Condition assessment for the evaluation of existing structures;
Performance prediction using advanced methods;
Decision-making procedures to perform a complete assessment of existing structure.
The overall objective of the through-life management is the assessment of the current condition and the estimation of the remaining service life under consideration of all boundary conditions.
A safety or security related assessment of explosions, accidental and intentional scenarios alike, often necessitate performance of replication-tests. Such test results are necessary to clarify the causes within the scope of forensic investigations. To gain important insights into the behavior of structures and materials under such loading, field tests may also be performed in accordance with different test standards. To determine the resistance of building-structures after explosions, estimation of the residual load-bearing capacity in addition to the assessment of dynamic structural response and damage to the building components is important. In most cases an evaluation of structural integrity is based only on the visual damage, resulting in an overestimation of the residual capacity.
The Bundesanstalt für Materialforschung und -prüfung (BAM) operates the Test site for Technical Safety (TTS) on an area measuring about 12 km2 in the Federal State of Brandenburg for execution of true-to-scale explosion tests. At the TTS, building component testing was performed to assess the suitability of different non-destructive testing methods to characterize the dynamic structural response and damage resulting from the detonation of high explosives.
Different blast-loading scenarios were realized by varying the net explosive mass and the standoff distance with all scenarios representing a near-field detonation. The test object was a reinforced concrete wall 2 m high, 2.5 m wide and 20 cm thick, fixed at both vertical edges. The dynamic loading of the wall was characterized with 8 piezoelectric pressure sensors flush-mounted on the front surface, thus measuring the reflected pressures from the shock wave. The tests were conducted with the aim of characterizing the global behavior of the wall under dynamic shock loading and the resulting local damage pattern, respectively. High speed digital image correlation was implemented in combination with multiple acceleration sensors to observe the rear surface of the wall to chart the dynamic deflection during the loading and to determine the residual deformation after the loading had ceased. In addition, one test specimen was instrumented with fiber optic sensor cables, both fixed to the rebars and embedded in the concrete-matrix, respectively. Firstly, these sensors were interrogated during the blast test by a distributed acoustic sensing (DAS) device using a particularly high sampling rate to measure the shock-induced vibrations in the structure with high temporal resolution. This delivers information on dynamics of compression and tension cycles from within the structure. Secondly, the local damage-pattern emerging during the series of blasts was determined via distributed fiber optic strain sensing (DSS) by interrogating the embedded fiber optic sensors with a high spatial resolution DSS device after each blast. This enabled the characterization of non-visual damage to the structure, in particular with regard to the formation of localized cracks in the concrete matrix. The DSS was further complimented by a structure-scanner based on ultrasonic measurements.
Our contribution describes this new test approach in detail. Results of the three datasets, namely dynamic shock loading, global behavior of the test object and the local damage pattern will be presented. The suitability of the implemented measurement methods will be discussed in combination with the challenges in their application for technical safety evaluation of building components under explosive loading.
BAM (Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing) is developing an electronic measurement system to be placed inside a waste drum, which will be filled with concrete. The goal of this measurement system is to monitor the process of hardening and the evolution of the concrete itself over time to indirectly identify potential defects such as corrosion or cracking. The measured parameters are humidity, temperature, and pressure. In this regard, particular attention was given to the design of the electronic board’s enclosure, to allow the sensors to measure the state of the concrete without being in direct contact with it. In the scope of the European Commission’s project of PREDIS, the supply of power to the battery-less sensors and the data acquired by such sensors are transmitted through the metallic waste drum by an innovative wireless technology developed by VTT (Technical Research Centre of Finland) in order to ensure long-term operation while keeping the integrity of the sealed container.
BAM is developing an electronic measurement system to be placed inside a waste drum, which will be filled with concrete. The goal of this measurement system is to monitor the process of hardening and the evolution of the concrete itself over time to indirectly identify potential defects such as corrosion or cracking. The measured parameters are humidity, temperature, and pressure. In this regard, particular attention was given to the design of the electronic board’s enclosure, to allow the sensors to measure the state of the concrete without being in direct contact with it. In the scope of the EU project PREDIS, the data acquired by such sensors are transmitted from inside to outside the metallic waste drum through wireless technology.
The sensing system is made of a chain of small sensing units, called SensorNodes. Each SensorNode includes two off-the-shelf sensors, one for relative humidity and temperature and one for pressure and temperature. A SensorNode is designed to have a unique identifier, in order to be connected to other units while being uniquely discoverable by a standard communication protocol. In this way, a distributed matrix of measurement points is created.
One of the most challenging tasks in designing a measurement system to run in a harsh environment (such as hardening concrete) is to let the sensors sense the external environment without damaging the sensor itself.
To keep the external environment away from the electronic board while still letting the sensors measure the concrete behavior, holes have been drilled through the lid and covered from the inside with a layer of a porous membrane. The membrane's pores allow water and gas particles to pass through and let the enclosed air equilibrate with the external environment.
With the help of the developed sensors, monitoring concrete in cemented waste drums will be possible. The derived data will also serve as the basis for ongoing modeling approaches for digital twins within the Predis project. Overall, the sensors provide a means of enabling safe nuclear waste management through advanced monitoring
Monitoring and maintenance of civil infrastructure are of great importance, as any undetected damage can cause high repair costs, unintended deadtime, or endanger structural integrity. The inspection of large concrete structures such as bridges and parking lots is particularly challenging and time-consuming. Traditional methods are mostly manual and involve mapping a grid of measurement lines to record the position of each measurement. Current semi-automated methods, on the other hand, use GPS or tachymeters for localization but still require trained personnel to operate. An entirely automated approach using mobile robots would be more cost- and time-efficient. While there have been developments in using GPS-enabled mobile robots for bridge inspection, the weak signal strength in indoor areas poses a challenge for the automated inspection of structures such as parking lots. This paper aims to develop a solution for the automated inspection of large indoor concrete structures by addressing the problem of robot localization in indoor spaces and the automated measurement of concrete cover and rebar detection.