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"INFRASTAR aims to develop knowledge, expertise and skills for optimal and reliable management of structures. The generic methodology is applied to bridges and wind turbines in relation to fatigue offering the opportunity to deal with complementary notions (such as old and new asset management, unique and similar structures, wind and traffic actions) while addressing 3 major challenges: 1/ advanced modelling of concrete fatigue behaviour, 2/new non destructive testing methods for early aged damage detection and 3/probabilistic approach of structure reliability under fatigue. Benefit of cross-experience and inter-disciplinary synergies creates new knowledge. INFRASTAR proposes innovative solutions for civil infrastructure asset management so that young scientists acquire a high employment profile in close dialogue between industry and academic partners. Modern engineering methods, including probabilistic approaches, risk and reliability assessment tools, will take into account the effective structural behaviour of existing bridges and wind turbines by exploiting monitored data. Existing methods and current state-of -the art is based on excessive conservatism which produces high costs and hinders sustainability. INFRASTAR improves knowledge for optimising the design of new structures, for more realistic verification of structural safety and more accurate prediction of future lifetime of the existing structures. That is a challenge for a sustainable development because it reduces building material and energy consumption as well as CO2 production. Within the global framework of optimal infrastructure asset management, INFRASTAR will result in a multi-disciplinary body of knowledge covering generic problems from the design stage process of the new civil infrastructures up to recycling after dismantlement. This approach and the proposed methods and tools are new and allow a step forward for innovative and effective process."
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.
Stahlbetontragwerke sind eine wichtige Konstruktionsweise im Bauwesen und ein wachsendes Anwendungsfeld für die Zerstörungsfreie Prüfung (ZfP).
Zur Sicherung der Tragsicherheit, strukturellen Integrität, Bestimmung von Geometrien und zur Detektion konstruktiver Elemente wie z.B. Bewehrung, Verankerungen und Spannkanälen besitzen zerstörungsfreie Prüfverfahren in diesem Bereich inzwischen große Relevanz. Durch den bislang erreichten Fortschritt in der Forschung und Entwicklung haben moderne akustische und elektromagnetische Verfahren eine beachtliche Leistungsfähigkeit erreicht. Von Geräteherstellern sind diese in kommerziellen Produktserien umgesetzt worden und finden eine zunehmend breite Anwendung in der Praxis. In einigen anderen Anwendungsgebieten, in denen die ZfP bereits fester Bestandteil von Überwachungen ist, wie z.B. im Maschinenbau und insbesondere in der Kerntechnik und der Luftfahrt, existieren umfangreiche Qualitätssicherungssysteme für die konforme Anwendung und zuverlässige Einbeziehung der ZfP. Dem relativ jungen Entwicklungsstadium moderner ZfP für Stahlbetonbauteile entsprechend müssen solche Konzepte im Bauwesen erst noch entwickelt bzw. implementiert werden.
Dementsprechend hat sich der Unterausschuss Qualitätssicherung (UA- S) des Fachausschusses ZfP im Bauwesen (ZfPBau) die Definition und Verbesserung der Qualität von ZfP-Anwendungen sowie insbesondere die verfahrensunabhängige Standardisierung von Prüfprozeduren und statistische Absicherung der Prüfergebnisse zum Ziel gemacht.
Die aktuellen Arbeitsfelder beinhalten die Entwicklung praxisgerechter Konzepte für Prüfprozeduren und deren Erprobung in einem Ringversuch sowie die Konzeption von Testkörpern hinsichtlich unterschiedlicher Aspekte wie Parameterstudien, Validierung, Kalibrierung und Simulation. Dabei werden Ansätze anderer Branchen durchaus einbezogen, die Anpassung an die spezifischen Bedürfnisse und Gegebenheiten des Bauwesens wird jedoch als wesentlich angesehen und stellt somit eine wichtige Vorgabe dar.
Da die Tätigkeiten nicht auf einzelne Verfahren begrenzt sind, müssen generelle Vorgehensweisen entwickelt werden, die sich auf die jeweiligen Verfahren konkretisieren lassen. Der Vortrag gibt hierzu erste Einblicke in die Arbeit des Ausschusses.
The process of ensuring reliability of NDT applications contains various aspects, such as determining the performance and probability of success, the uncertainty in measurement, the provision of clear and functional procedures and ensuring the correct application accordingly. Test specimens have become powerful elements in supporting many of these aspects. Within the committee for NDT in Civil Engineering (NDT-CE) of the German Society for Nondestructive Testing (DGZfP), the subcommittee on Quality Assurance (UA-QS) therefore addresses the design and the integration of test specimens in the quality assurance process. Depending on the specific purpose, the requirements on test specimens can vary significantly based on the defined simulated scenario. The most prominent purposes of test specimens might be seen in providing references for inspection systems in regard to function control, calibration and validation. Further aspects can be parametric studies, basic investigation of physical principles related to NDT or a simplified and therefore comprehensive demonstration of inspection concepts (e.g. for teaching purposes). The specific purpose of a test specimen dictates the requirements regarding its conception, including the exact design, the material or the fabrication accuracy and the conditioning. In the development of a general guideline by the UA-QS for application-specific procedures and their validation, the use of test specimens is addressed and specific concepts for the design of test specimens are made. This includes the analysis of the measurement process regarding any given application, deriving an adequate calibration approach for it and designing test specimens (calibration specimens) accordingly. Furthermore, it includes the validation of the procedure taking into account all conditions related to the specific application in the field. The validation requires a statistically sufficient number of trials. Thorough evaluation of each trial can only be established if the ground-truth is known. Therefore, test specimens providing a realistic but controlled simulation of the inspection problem are valuable and indispensable elements in the validation process. The requirement of being fully realistic will often not be possible to fulfill due to practical restrictions. Any aspect that cannot be included in the simulation realistically needs to be simulated conservatively. This again, requires a sufficient understanding of the inspection principle and technique to ensure conservativeness. Among other quality-assurance-related aspects, the UA-QS establishes concepts and guidelines regarding sound and efficient approaches for the specific purposes of test specimens. This subcommittee brings together representatives of different Groups along the entire value chain of NDT-CE, including researchers, practitioners, manufacturers and clients. They all work together in establishing a common understanding and level of quality assurance in the industry.
The field of non-destructive testing of civil structures (NDT-CE) has been continuously growing. Due to the complexity and diversity of civil constructions as well as the heterogeneity of concrete, specific standards or guidelines for the application of modern NDT-CE are still missing. The development of individual solutions is the current approach, which is just as challenging as it is common for NDT-CE.
With the increasing development and commercialization of NDT-CE technology, the group of practitioners is growing. To ensure a good level of quality in the industry, it appears necessary to establish adequate means.
Naturally, the performance of NDT-CE methods regarding a specific application is strongly dependent on choosing the most suitable inspection technique and applying it correctly, generally referred to as the inspection procedure in the field of NDT. There are well-defined guidelines regarding procedure documentation and handling in many fields of NDT (e.g. nuclear, aerospace or automotive) according to the high importance of procedures in assuring a successful and reliable application. For a long time, this has not always been the case with NDT-CE, which is still considered a unique discipline of NDT. Part of the reason for that might be the young development state of NDTCE, the heterogeneity of building materials like concrete, timber or masonry as a material and the diversity of civil structures. In consequence, NDT-CE procedure development is considered challenging.
Among other aspects, addressed in the subcommittee on Quality Assurance (UA-QS) within the committee for NDT-CE of the German Society for Nondestructive Testing (DGZfP), part of its work aims at establishing an adequate basis for NDT-CE procedure development. While some of the highly developed approaches from other industries are taken into consideration, they need to be analyzed regarding their suitability for NDT-CE and adapted accordingly. For a procedure to be as defined as possible, it needs to contain sufficient information, such as the scope and limitations regarding material, geometry and condition of the test object, inspection parameters, calibration, data acquisition, analysis criteria as well as requirements regarding the inspection personnel.
For a successful implementation in the field, it is important to define the specific procedure as precisely as possible. Despite the necessity of a great amount of information to be included, the procedure needs to be suitable for efficient field application.
The UA-QS is developing a guideline for NDT-CE procedures suitable for application in this field of NDT to ensure correct and reproducible application. To demonstrate and evaluate this concept, specific examples of procedures are also produced. In particular, the UA-QS has developed a procedure for the detection and positioning of tendon ducts using Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR). This procedure is tested regarding the practical applicability in a roundrobin on a defined type of reference test block.
Die steigende Nachfrage von zerstörungsfreien Prüfverfahren, welche die Zeitinvestition verbessern und eine kontinuierliche Messung ermöglichen, erfordert die Entwicklung des luftgekoppltes Impakt-Echo-Messverfahrens. Diese Entwicklung kann durch die fluidische Anregung ermöglicht werden.
Das Ziel dieser vorliegenden Arbeit war der Aufbau einer Messapparatur, die auf Schnelligkeit setzt und kontinuierlich misst. Nach der Durchführung der fluidischen Anregung wurden mit Hilfe eines Laservibrometers die Daten aufgenommen. Zur Analysierung der auf diese Weise erhobenen Messwerte wurden sie mittels der Fast-Fourier-Transformation in den Frequenzbereich transformiert.
Für den Zweck der Validierung wurden Zylinder-Probekörper und Platten-Probekörper wurden verwendet. Die Messungen an den Zylinder-Probekörpern lieferten erfolgreiche Ergebnisse, während die Messungen an den Platten-Probekörpern weitere Untersuchung und Entwicklung benötigten werden.
This contribution summarizes actual developments and draft fundamental teaching topics in the field of nondestructive testing in civil engineering (NDT-CE). It is based on the first memorandum on teaching and research in the field of NDT-CE at German speaking universities and provides an overview of the academic education and highlights possible focuses, especially in teaching but also takes into account noteworthy developments and topics in research in the field of NDT-CE.
Suggestions are given for the development and advancement of the teaching curricula in regards to a comprehensive and sound professional education of students in civil engineering and adjacent disciplines.
Decades of non-destructive evaluation (NDE) for the quality assurance of concrete bridges revealed the necessity of developing procedures for building reference specimens for different defects. External objects have been widely used in specimen construction to represent defects. However, embedded materials can alter the actual defect characteristics, interrupting the NDE responses. This study proposes new approaches to fabricating reference specimens for reinforced concrete that feature substantial defects, including cracks, delamination, honeycombing and rebar corrosion, without external objects. As a result, realistic responses can be acquired to identify promising NDE methods for characterising actual deteriorations. The procedures were produced with the intent of being reproducible in any laboratory. Destructive and non-destructive testing methods were performed to verify the effectiveness of the processes in creating defects. This study provides research laboratories with techniques for
fabricating reference specimens for characterising defects and assessing the performance of NDE technologies.
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.
In this communication a novel concept for pH sensing is introduced which is specifically adapted to monitor carbonation induced corrosion in concrete structures. The method is based on a ratiometric measurement principle, exploiting the pH sensitive colour switching of thymol blue in the basic pH regime and the emissive properties of two different (Zn)CdSe/ZnS core shell quantum dots. The transition point of thymol blue in a Hydrogel D4 matrix was determined to be at around pH 11.6, which fits ideally to the intended application. Next to the fundamental spectroscopic characterization of the ratiometric response, a new design for a sensor head, suitable for the incorporation into concrete matrices is presented. Toward this, a manufacturing process was developed which includes the preparation of a double layer of polymers containing either thymol blue or a quantum dot mixture inside a porous ceramic tube. Results of a proof-of-priciple performance test of the sensor head in solutions of different pH and in cement specimens are presented, with encouraging results paving the way for future field tests in concrete.
Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) is an important part of buildings surveillance and maintenance to detect material failure as early as possible and to contribute in protection of structures and their users.
The implementation of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) sensor systems without cable connection and battery into building components offers innovative possibilities to enable long-term in-situ SHM of addressed structures, bridges. The objectives of the presented study are complete embedding of RFID sensors systems in concrete, full passive communication with the systems, at best for the whole life span of structures. One challenge for this task is the highly alkaline environment in concrete, which requires non-degrading and robust encapsulation. Further Requirements are passive communication and energy supply, appropriate antenna design, placement and fixation in concrete, and the selection and implementation of sensors and connections. The concept is to develop and optimize a simple and robust system, which meets the requirements, as well as comprehensive validation in concrete specimen and real world applications. Two different systems were developed (HF and UHF RFID, respectively).
First tasks were the implementation of analog sensors using the superposition principle for the signal adaption. Investigation of suitable materials for robust encapsulation and sensor protection against basic environments.
Four materials were investigated in pH 13 solution for 14 days
- 3D-Printer-Polymer was completely resolved
- PVC has no noticeable decrease in weight
- (VitaPro) glass filter for the sensor protector, has weight loss 2.7 %
- The epoxy resin has increased by 1.8 % due to moisture expansion
Different concrete samples were prepared for the validation of the systems.
RFID sensors were embedded in different integration depths. Investigate the energy- and data transfer through concrete, also with varying moisture content. Additionally, signal strength data was used to optimize and validate the antenna characteristics in concrete. Next steps are to guarantee a sufficient energy supply for UHF RFID systems embedded in different concrete mixtures and further embedding the HF and UHF RFID systems in real bridges and buildings to validate the long term monitoring.
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.
The assessment of Coda Wave Interferometry (CWI) and Distributed Fiber Optics Sensing (DFOS) techniques for the detection of damages in a laboratory size reinforced concrete beam is presented in this paper. The sensitivity of these two novel techniques to micro cracks is discussed and compared to standard traditional sensors. Moreover, the capacity of a DFOS technique to localize cracks and quantify crack openings is also assessed. The results show that the implementation of CWI and DFOS techniques allow the detection of early subtle changes in reinforced concrete structures until crack formation. With their ability to quantify the crack opening, following early detection and localization, DFOS techniques can achieve more effective monitoring of reinforced concrete structures. Contrary to discrete sensors, CWI and DFOS techniques cover larger areas and thus provide more efficient infrastructures asset management and maintenance operations throughout the lifetime of the structure.
Der Weg zur digitalen Brücke ist eingeschlagen. Im Bereich der Planung, Bauüberwachung und -ausführung wird aktuell das Building Information Modelling (BIM) eingeführt. Ist eine Brücke in der Baulast von Bund und Ländern errichtet, wird ihr Zustand im Zuge von wiederkehrenden Bauwerksprüfungen nach DIN 1076 lückenlos überwacht. Abgespeichert werden die Informationen der Überwachung in einer Datenbank (ASB-ING Teilsystem Bauwerksdaten). Aus dieser Datenbank können anschließend relevante Informationen in ein objektspezifisches Bauwerksbuch überführt werden. In dieser Datenbank werden im Vorfeld definierte Daten abgespeichert. Reine Messdaten oder aber auch die verwendeten ingenieurtechnisch-physikalischen Modelle verbleiben in der Regel bei den beauftragen Dienstleistern. Zusammengefasst existieren verschiedene parallele Insellösungen der Informationsablage. Gegenstand verschiedener Forschungsanstrengungen ist es nun Lösungen zu finden, die einen ganzheitlichen Ansatz für den Informationsfluss von der Errichtung über den Betrieb bis hin zum Abbruch eines Bauwerkes sicherstellen. Im Rahmen einer prototypischen Entwicklung wird auf Grundlage, des für die Industrie 4.0 entwickelten open source Software Framework Eclipse BaSyx, ein möglicher Lösungsansatz – die Verwaltungsschale BBox (Bridge Box) - präsentiert. Dieser Lösungsansatz stellt das physikalisch-ingenieurtechnische Modell zur Zustandsbewertung der Brücke gedanklich in den Mittelpunkt. Unter der Voraussetzung einer durchgängigen Digitalisierung der gesamten Prozessschritte innerhalb der Lebensdauer der Brücke, kann jeder Planungs- und Fertigungsschritt, die Instandhaltung einschließlich des Rückbaus erfasst werden. Das Besondere hierbei ist, dass auch die Grundlagen der Bewertung, wie Messdaten, mit abgespeichert werden. Die Modellstruktur der Verwaltungsschale erlaubt hierbei eine bedarfsgerechte Granularität hinsichtlich der Messdaten auf allen virtuellen Ebenen, um das physikalisch-ingenieurtechnisch Modell mit Daten zu versorgen. Die gewählte Form der Datenablage bildet den Grundstein für zukünftige KI-Auswertungen z.B. mit den Methoden des Maschinellen Lernens (ML). Der Zugriff auf die dafür jeweils benötigten Daten wird durch die Ablage der Daten einschließlich Metadaten und den Einsatz einer Standard S3 Schnittstelle stark vereinfacht. Der Beitrag stellt die Entwicklung und die Systemarchitektur der BBox am Beispiel von 2 Projekten dar.
Digitaler Zwilling: Verwaltungsschale BBox als Datenablage über den Lebenszyklus einer Brücke
(2021)
Auf dem Weg zur digitalen Brücke existieren bereits erste Lösungen, die den Lebenszyklus einer Brücke abbilden können. Für die Planung, den Bau und den Unterhalt stehen unterschiedlichste Werkzeuge, z. B. BIM, DIN 1076, SIB-Bauwerke, Monitoring etc. zur Verfügung, die jeweils mit unterschiedlichen Datenformaten arbeiten. Für ein intelligentes Erhaltungsmanagement müssen aber alle Daten mit den verschiedenen Datenformaten zusammengeführt, abgelegt und so verwaltet werden können, dass über den gesamten Lebenszyklus einer Brücke die Abbildung eines ganzheitlichen digitalen Zwillings eines Bauwerks möglich ist. Die Autoren haben dafür mit BBox den Prototyp einer Verwaltungsschale (VWS) auf Grundlage von Industrie 4.0 entwickelt. Damit wird das physikalisch-ingenieurtechnische Modell zur Zustandsbewertung der Brücke in den Mittelpunkt gestellt und der gesamte Lebenszyklus einer Brücke kann unabhängig von Datenformaten digital erfasst werden. Da der Aufbau der VWS durch die Granularität optimal strukturiert ist, bietet die Ablage und Einspeisung von Messdaten sowohl die Grundlage eines Live-Monitorings als auch den Grundstein für maschinelles Lernen (ML). Der Datenzugriff via S3-Schnittstelle erleichtert die Entwicklung von eigenen Prognosemodellen mit Informationsmustern (SHIP – Structural Health Information Pattern). Am Beispiel der Heinrichsbrücke Bamberg wird die praktische intelligente Umsetzung des Bauwerksmonitorings inkl. VWS mit Informationsmustern und ML gezeigt.
In ultrasonic testing, the time of flight (ToF) of a signal can be used to infer material and structural properties of a test item. In dispersive media, extracting the bulk wave velocity from a received signal is challenging as the waveform changes along its path of propagation. When using signal features such as the first peak or the envelope maximum, the calculated velocity changes with the propagation distance. This does not occur when picking the signal onset. Borrowing from seismology, researchers used the Akaike information criterion (AIC) picker to automatically obtain onset times. In addition to being dependent on arbitrarily set parameters, the AIC picker assumes no prior knowledge of the spectral properties of the signal. This is unnecessary in ultrasonic through-transmission testing, where the signal spectrum is known to differ significantly from noise. In this contribution, a novel parameter-free onset picker is proposed, that is based on a spectral entropy criterion (SEC) to model the signal using the AIC framework. Synthetic and experimental data are used to compare the performance of SEC and AIC pickers, showing an improved accuracy for densely sampled data.
Entwicklung eines luftgekoppelten Ultraschall-Echo-Prüfverfahrens mittels fluidischer Anregung
(2020)
In vielen technischen Bereichen werden Ultraschallverfahren zur zerstörungsfreien Werkstoffprüfung (ZfP) eingesetzt um auf Basis der Signalstärke und der Laufzeit Einbauteile und Beschädigungen zu orten. Luftgekoppelter Ultraschall spielt bisher in kommerziellen Anwendungen vor Allem im Bauwesen eine untergeordnete Rolle, da die Differenz der akustischen Impedanzen von Luft und Festkörpern immense Verluste beim Übergang des Schallsignals hervorruft.
Im Rahmen des Promotionsvorhabens soll die Eignung eines neuartigen Anregungsprinzip untersucht werden, mit dem ein Großteil dieser Verluste vermieden werden soll. Anstelle eines Festkörpers soll mit Hilfe einer fluidischen Düse Druckluft zur Signalerzeugung eingesetzt werden. Die Impedanzverluste zwischen Aktuatormembran und Umgebungsluft entfallen daher.
Die gezielte Schallerzeugung durch einen pulsierenden Freistrahl ist weitgehend unerforscht. Es ist daher notwendig, den so erzeugten Schallpuls in der Interaktion mit dem transienten Strömungsfeld zu untersuchen. Das kompressible Medium Luft und die geringen räumlichen Dimensionen einer hochfrequenten Pulsdüse werfen darüber hinaus einige Herausforderungen hinsichtlich der eingesetzten Messtechnik auf. Hier sollen geeignete Verfahren weiterentwickelt und validiert werden, um die Eignung des fluidisch erzeugten Pulses zu überprüfen.
In diesem Vortrag werden erste Messungen an einem fluidischen Schalter mit denen an einem kommerziellen Luftultraschallprüfkopf verglichen.
Motivation:
• Air-coupled ultrasound (AC-US) enables faster measurements in non-destructive testing for civil engineering
• Current state of the art: piezo and capacitive transducers are mostly used for AC US
• Currently >99.9% sound intensity loss due to impedance mismatches
Innovation:
• Fluidic transducers generate US (30-60 kHz) by rapid switching of a supersonic jet
• Fluidic transducers rely on external components such as solenoid valves and tubing
--> How do repetition time and tube length influence the signal?
Entwicklung eines luftgekoppelten Ultraschall-Echo-Prüfverfahrens mittels fluidischer Anregung
(2019)
In vielen technischen Bereichen werden Ultraschallverfahren zur zerstörungsfreien Werkstoffprüfung eingesetzt. Dabei wird ein Schallpuls von einem Prüfkopf in ein Prüfobjekt eingebracht. Der Puls kann unter anderem durch Membranen oder Piezoelemente erzeugt werden und wird in der Regel durch direkten Kontakt oder über ein Koppelmittel an das Objekt übertragen. Luftgekoppelter Ultraschall spielt in kommerziellen Anwendungen bisher eine untergeordnete Rolle, da die Differenz der akustischen Impedanzen von Luft und Festkörpern immense Verluste beim Übergang des Schallsignals hervorruft.
In diesem Beitrag soll ein neuartiges Anregungsprinzip vorgestellt werden, mit dem ein Großteil dieser Verluste vermieden wird. Anstelle eines Festkörpers soll mit Hilfe einer fluidischen Düse Druckluft zur Signalerzeugung eingesetzt werden. In dieser Düse wird eine selbsterhaltende Strömungsinstabilität erzeugt, die einen Schallpuls von bis zu 100 kHz hervorruft, sodass der Impedanzverlust in die Umgebungsluft entfällt. Da die charakteristische Frequenz eines fluidisch generierten Pulses maßgeblich von der Bauform der Düse und dem anliegenden Druck abhängt, lässt sich mittels einer geeigneten Strömungsregelung ein breiter Frequenzbereich zur Abtastung nutzen. Die so emittierten Pulse werden auf das Prüfobjekt gerichtet und die reflektierten Signale mit einem Laservibrometer an der Oberfläche des Objekts im Echo-Verfahren abgetastet. Von drei signalmindernden Materialübergängen bei gewöhnlichem luftgekoppeltem Ultraschall bleibt in dem hier vorgeschlagenen Messystem lediglich die Grenzfläche von Luft zu Prüfkörper, sodass eine höhere Signalausbeute als bisher erwartet werden kann.
Ultrasonic measurement technology has become indispensable in NDT. In order to reduce measurement time and extend the application to other materials, contactless ultrasound is the subject of many different research groups. Department 8 has been researching successfully in this field for years. A novel approach is based on so-called fluidic devices. These devices can be used to perform binary logic operations with the help of natural flow instabilities. Hence the abbreviated name, Fluidic (FLUID+LogIC). Only a pressure reservoir of the used fluid is required as energy supply. This enables the production of very robust actuators that generate ultrasonic signals in an extremely energy efficient way.
The presentation includes the research results of the ZIM innovation project OsciCheck. The original idea will be presented and its application on different building materials is validated. Beyond this, the possible application areas are much larger and a detailed outlook is given to discuss the future potential of fluidic ultrasonic actuators.
Development of an Accurate and Robust Air-Coupled Ultrasonic Time-of-Flight Measurement Technique
(2022)
Ultrasonic time-of-flight (ToF) measurements enable the non-destructive characterization of material parameters as well as the reconstruction of scatterers inside a specimen. The time-consuming and potentially damaging procedure of applying a liquid couplant between specimen and transducer can be avoided by using air-coupled ultrasound. However, to obtain accurate ToF results, the waveform and travel time of the acoustic signal through the air, which are influenced by the ambient conditions, need to be considered. The placement of microphones as signal receivers is restricted to locations where they do not affect the sound field. This study presents a novel method for in-air ranging and ToF determination that is non-invasive and robust to changing ambient conditions or waveform variations. The in-air travel time was determined by utilizing the azimuthal directivity of a laser Doppler vibrometer operated in refracto-vibrometry (RV) mode. The time of entry of the acoustic signal was determined using the autocorrelation of the RV signal. The same signal was further used as a reference for determining the ToF through the specimen in transmission mode via cross-correlation. The derived signal processing procedure was verified in experiments on a polyamide specimen. Here, a ranging accuracy of <0.1 mm and a transmission ToF accuracy of 0.3μs were achieved. Thus, the proposed method enables fast and accurate non-invasive ToF measurements that do not require knowledge about transducer characteristics or ambient conditions.
In ultrasonic testing, material and structural properties of a specimen can be derived from the time-of-flight (ToF). Using signal features, such as the first peak or envelope maximum, to calculate the ToF is error-prone in multipath arrangements or dispersive and attenuating materials, which is not the case for the signal onset. Borrowing from seismology, researchers used the Akaike information criterion (AIC) picker to automatically determine onset times. The most commonly used formulation, Maeda's AIC picker, is reassessed and found to be based on inappropriate assumptions for signals often used in ultrasonic testing and dependent on arbitrary parameters. Consequently, an onset picker for ultrasonic through-transmission measurements is proposed, based on a spectral entropy criterion (SEC) to model the signal using the AIC framework. This SEC picker takes into account the spectral properties of the ultrasonic signal and is virtually free of arbitrary parameters. Synthetic and experimental data are used to compare the performance of SEC and AIC pickers. It is shown that the accuracy of onset picking is improved for densely sampled data.
Air-coupled ultrasonic (ACU) testing has proven to be a valuable method for increasing the speed in non-destructive ultrasonic testing and the investigation of sensitive specimens. A major obstacle to implementing ACU methods is the significant signal power loss at the air–specimen and transducer–air interfaces. The loss between transducer and air can be eliminated by using recently developed fluidic transducers. These transducers use pressurized air and a natural flow instability to generate high sound power signals. Due to this self-excited flow instability, the individual pulses are dissimilar in length, amplitude, and phase. These amplitude and angle modulated pulses offer the great opportunity to further increase the signal-to-noise ratio with pulse compression methods.
In practice, multi-input multi-output (MIMO) setups reduce the time required to scan the specimen surface, but demand high pulse discriminability. By applying envelope removal techniques to the individual pulses, the pulse discriminability is increased allowing only the remaining phase information to be targeted for analysis. Finally, semi-synthetic experiments are presented to verify the applicability of the envelope removal method and highlight the suitability of the fluidic transducer for MIMO setups.
This data article presents characteristic acoustic and flow data of a fluidic ultrasonic transducer as well as acoustic data of a commercial piezoelectric ultrasonic transducer used in non-destructive testing for civil engineering. The flow data has been acquired using hot-wire anemometry and a Pitot tube. The three-dimensional acoustic data of both devices has been acquired using a calibrated microphone. The distribution of characteristic acoustic properties of both transducers are extracted and given in addition to the raw data. The data presented in the article will be a valuable source for reference and validation, both for developing fluidic and alternate ultrasound generation technologies. Furthermore, they will give additional insight into the acoustic-flow interaction phenomena of high speed switching devices. This article is accompanying the paper Experimental Analysis of the Acoustic Field of an Ultrasonic Pulse Induced by a Fluidic Switch (Bühling et al., 2021) published in The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, where the data is interpreted in detail and the rationale for characteristic sound properties of the fluidic transducer are given.
AbstractAir‐coupled ultrasonic testing (ACU) is a pioneering technique in non‐destructive testing (NDT). While contact testing and fluid immersion testing are standard methods in many applications, the adoption of ACU is progressing slowly, especially in the low ultrasonic frequency range. A main reason for this development is the difficulty of generating high amplitude ultrasonic bursts with equipment that is robust enough to be applied outside a laboratory environment. This paper presents the fluidic ultrasonic transducer as a solution to this challenge. This novel aeroacoustic source uses the flow instability of a sonic jet in a bistable fluidic switch to generate ultrasonic bursts up to 60 kHz with a mean peak pressure of 320 Pa. The robust design allows operation in adverse environments, independent of the operating fluid. Non‐contact through‐transmission experiments are conducted on four materials and compared with the results of conventional transducers. For the first time, it is shown that the novel fluidic ultrasonic transducer provides a suitable acoustic signal for NDT tasks and has potential of furthering the implementation of ACU in industrial applications.This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved
Ultrasonic measurement technology has become indispensable in NDT-CE. Air-coupled ultrasonic (ACU) measurement techniques promise to reduce measurement time. However, the signal quality suffers from large specific impedance mismatch at the transducer-air and air-specimen interface. Additionally, large pressure amplitudes are necessary for the penetration depth required in NDT-CE applications. To address the specific requirements of ultrasonic testing in NDT-CE, a robust ACU transducer was developed, that generates ultrasound by quickly switching a pressurized air flow. The simple design of the fluidic transducer makes the device maintenance free and resilient against harsh environmental conditions. Since the signal is generated by aeroacoustics, there is no specific impedance mismatch between the transducer and the surrounding air. The ultrasonic signal exhibits frequencies in the 30-60 kHz range and is therefore well suited to penetrate heterogenous materials such as concrete. This contribution gives an introduction in the working principle and signal characteristics of the fluidic transducer. Its applicability to measurements in concrete is verified. A detailed outlook is given to discuss the future potential of fluidic ultrasonic actuators.
Ultrasonic testing is a widely applied measurement method in materials research and medicine. Commonly, a transducer is coupled to the specimen directly or via a liquid coupling agent. While reducing acoustic transmission losses significantly, this procedure is time-consuming and cannot be used for sensitive specimens. Air-coupled ultrasound is a viable alternative in such cases, although suffering from very high acoustic transmission losses between transducer, air and specimen. The recently introduced fluidic transducer (FT) generates ultrasound by utilizing the instability of a supersonic air jet switched inside a fluidic amplifier. Since only air is used as the working medium and no vibrating surfaces are used for ultrasound generation, the transducer is able to efficiently generate large acoustic pressure amplitudes. The resulting acoustic field shares its directivity with the ejected high-velocity air jet. Thus, the acoustic energy needs to be redirected from the jet axis in order to make the fluidic transducer applicable to sensitive specimens. In this study, the effectivity of using sonic crystals (SCs) for this redirection is investigated using acoustic and flow measurements. SCs are air-permeable while being reflective to large acoustic frequency bands. It was shown that both a defect waveguide and a mirroring strategy successfully redirected the acoustic field from the air jet. Furthermore, the interaction of flow and SC showed strong acoustic quenching if the SC was placed too close to the FT outlet. Blockage of the jet entrainment due to the SC may result in slightly higher off-axis flow velocities locally, which should be considered in sensitive applications.
While contact and immersion ultrasonic testing are established methods in non-destructive testing (NDT), generating high power air-coupled ultrasound remains a challenging task. Solutions often involve setups that are restricted to lab environments. When field measurements are required, such as in NDT for civil engineering, a handy, robust and safe transducer is needed. For this purpose, an ultrasonic transducer based on a fluidic switch has been developed. A sonic air flow inside the device is switched rapidly so that an ultrasonic signal is generated. Both theory and previous flow simulations suggest that the control flow pressure ramp has only little influence on the switching time of the device. This publication gives an overview over the operating principle of the fluidic ultrasonic transducer and investigates the influence of control tube length and pulsing repetition rate on the ultrasonic pressure amplitude. High repetition rates are found to reduce the signal amplitude, whereas long tubing has only little negative influence on the amplitude while improving signal quality.
Entwicklung eines luftgekoppelten Ultraschall-Echo-Prüfverfahrens mittels fluidischer Anregung
(2019)
In vielen technischen Bereichen werden Ultraschallverfahren zur zer-störungsfreien Werkstoffprüfung eingesetzt. Dabei wird ein Schallpuls von einem Prüfkopf in ein Prüfobjekt eingebracht. Der Puls kann unter anderem durch Membra-nen oder Piezoelemente erzeugt werden und wird in der Regel durch direkten Kontakt oder über ein Koppelmittel an das Objekt übertragen. Luftgekoppelter Ultraschall spielt in kommerziellen Anwendungen bisher eine untergeordnete Rolle, da die Dif-ferenz der akustischen Impedanzen von Luft und Festkörpern immense Verluste beim Übergang des Schallsignals hervorruft.
In diesem Beitrag soll ein neuartiges Anregungsprinzip vorgestellt werden, mit dem ein Großteil dieser Verluste vermieden wird. Anstelle eines Festkörpers soll mit Hilfe einer fluidischen Düse Druckluft zur Signalerzeugung eingesetzt werden. In die-ser Düse wird eine selbsterhaltende Strömungsinstabilität erzeugt, die einen Schall-puls von bis zu 100 kHz hervorruft, sodass der Impedanzverlust in die Umgebungsluft entfällt. Da die charakteristische Frequenz eines fluidisch generierten Pulses maßgeb-lich von der Bauform der Düse und dem anliegenden Druck abhängt, lässt sich mittels einer geeigneten Strömungsregelung ein breiter Frequenzbereich zur Abtastung nut-zen. Die so emittierten Pulse werden auf das Prüfobjekt gerichtet und die reflektierten Signale mit einem Laservibrometer an der Oberfläche des Objekts im Echo-Verfahren abgetastet. Von drei signalmindernden Materialübergängen bei gewöhnlichem luftge-koppeltem Ultraschall bleibt in dem hier vorgeschlagenen Messystem lediglich die Grenzfläche von Luft zu Prüfkörper, sodass eine höhere Signalausbeute als bisher er-wartet werden kann.
Experimental analysis of the acoustic field of an ultrasonic pulse induced by a fluidic switch
(2021)
Ultrasonic inspection is a common tool for non-destructive testing in civil engineering (NDT-CE). Currently, transducers are coupled directly to the specimen surface, which makes the inspection time-consuming. Air-coupled ultrasound (ACU) transducers are more time-efficient but need a high pressure amplitude as the impedance mismatch between the air and the concrete is high and large penetration depth is needed for the inspection. Current approaches aim at eliminating the impedance mismatch between the transducer and the air to gain amplitude; however, they hardly fulfill the NDT-CE requirements. In this study, an alternative approach for ultrasound generation is presented: the signal is generated by a fluidic switch that rapidly injects a mass flow into the ambience. The acoustic field, the flow field, and their interaction are investigated. It is shown that the signal has dominant frequencies in the range of 35–60 kHz, and the amplitude is comparable to that of a commercial ACU transducer.
Ein Endlager für radioaktive Abfälle muss auf Dauer vor dem Eindringen von Wasser geschützt werden. Aus diesem Grund errichtete die Bundesgesellschaft für Endlagerung (BGE) ein Verschlussbauwerk als InSitu Versuch im Endlager Morsleben. Hierfür wurde eine bergmännische Auffahrung mit Salzbeton verfüllt.
Zusätzliche in regelmäßigen Abständen eingebaute Trennbleche sollen der Ausbreitung eventueller Risse entgegenwirken.
Das Versuchsobjekt wurde mit Ultraschallmessungen bezüglich der Lage und Orientierung möglicher Risse untersucht. Diese Messungen wurden an der Stirnfläche des Salzbetonkörpers durchgeführt. Für die Datenakquisition fand ein neuartiges Messsystem Anwendung, mit welchem ein seismisches Akquisitionsschema realisiert werden kann. Dieses setzt sich aus mehreren Prüfköpfen zusammen, welche sowohl als Sender als auch als Empfänger fungieren. Somit lassen sich auch größere Sender-Empfänger-Abstände realisieren.
Vor der Bearbeitung der realen Messdaten wurde ein realitätsnahes synthetisches Modell erstellt, mit welchem die Abbildung eines Risses, eines eingebauten Monitoring-Instruments sowie des ersten Trennbleches in einer Tiefe von 8 m untersucht wurden. Die generierten synthetischen Daten wurden nach minimaler Preprozessierung mittels Kirchhoff-Prestack-Tiefenmigration sowie Reverse Time Migration (RTM) in Tiefensektionen umgewandelt. Insbesondere bei der Abbildung steilstehender Reflektoren lieferte die RTM hier ein besseres Ergebnis.
Im Anschluss wurden reale Messdaten in der gleichen Weise bearbeitet. Zusätzlich wurden die Ergebnisse mit denen der Synthetic-Aperture-Focusing-Technique (SAFT) verglichen. Dieses Verfahren ist der Kirchhoff-Migration sehr ähnlich und findet in der zerstörungsfreien Werkstoffprüfung routinemäßig Anwendung. Es stellte sich heraus, dass der RTM Algorithmus in einigen Fällen ein realitätsnäheres Abbild liefert. Die Resultate von Kirchhoff-Migrationund SAFT-Rekonstruktion sind hingegen sehr ähnlich. Alle Verfahren lokalisierten in gleicher Weise Risse in verschiedenen Tiefenlagen, welche hauptsächlich oberflächenparallel orientiert sind. Diese werden auch von Bohrungen bestätigt. Besonders herauszustellen ist die deutliche Abbildung des Trennbleches in großer Tiefe, was bisher noch nicht eindeutig gelungen war.
In the framework of non-destructive-testing advanced seismic imaging techniques have been applied to ultrasonic echo data in order to examine the integrity of an engineered test-barrier designed to be used for sealing an underground nuclear waste disposal site. Synthetic data as well as real multi-receiver ultrasonic data acquired at the test site were processed and imaged using Kirchhoff prestack depth migration reverse time migration (RTM). In general, both methods provide a good Image quality as demonstrated by various case studies, however deeper parts within the test barrier containing inclined reflectors were reconstructed more accurately by RTM. In particular, the image quality of a specific target reflector at a depth of 8 m in the test-barrier has been significantly improved compared to previous investigations using synthetic aperture Focusing technique, which justifies the considerable computing time of this method.
Im Jahre 2011 wurde in Deutschland nach 50 Jahren der Ausstieg aus der kommerziellen Kernenergie beschlossen. Fünf Jahre später war Deutschland mit 80.000 GWh immer noch unter den zehn größten Atomstromproduzenten. Im darauffolgenden Jahr wurden weltweit 2.500.000 GWh Atomstrom produziert. Durch die Atomstromproduktion fallen große Mengen an radioaktiven Reststoffen an, die bis zu mehrere tausend Jahre für einen vollständigen Abbau benötigen. Aus dieser Problematik geht die Debatte über den Verbleib der Reststoffe hervor. Die Endlagerung in tiefen Gesteinsschichten ist eine Lösung für das Problem. Voraussetzung ist hierbei allerdings die Gewährleistung eines dauerhaften Schutzes vor ionisierender Strahlung, die durch Verschlüsse der tiefen Gesteinsschichten in Form von Verschlussbauwerken erzielt werden sollen. Es gilt die bauliche Integrität sowie die Dichtwirkung der Verschlussbauwerke dauerhaft zu überwachen und zu prüfen, um eine langfristige Verzögerung der Radionuklidfreisetzung zu gewährleisten.
Damage detection of reinforced concrete (RC) structures is becoming a more attractive domain due to the safety issues arising in the last few decades. The damage in concrete can be caused by excessive exploitation of the structure or environmental effects. The cracks in concrete can be detected by different nondestructive testing methods. However, the available methods used for this purpose have numerous limitations. The technologies available in the market nowadays have difficulties detecting slowly progressive, locally limited damage. In addition, some of These methods cannot be applied, especially in hard-to-reach areas in the superstructures. In order to avoid these deficiencies, an embedded ultrasonic methodology can be used to detect cracks in RC structures. In this study, the methodology of crack detection supported with the advanced Signal processing algorithm was proposed and verified on RC structures of various types, and cracks occurring between embedded sensors can be detected. Moreover, different pairs of ultrasonic sensors located in the considered structures are used for the analysis of the sensitivity of distance between them. It is shown that the ultrasonic sensors placed in the range of 1.5–2 m can detect cracks, even when the other methods failed to detect changes in the structure. The obtained results confirmed that diffuse ultrasonic sensor methodology is able to monitor real structures more effectively than traditional techniques.
The integral collection of information such as strains, cracks, or temperatures by ultrasound offers the best prerequisites to monitor structures during their lifetime. In this paper, a novel approach is proposed which uses the collected information in the coda of ultrasonic signals to infer the condition of a structure. This approach is derived from component tests on a reinforced concrete beam subjected to four-point bending in the lab at Ruhr University Bochum. In addition to ultrasonic measurements, strain of the reinforcement is measured with fiber optic sensors. Approached by the methods of moment-curvature relations, the steel strains serve as a reference for velocity changes of the coda waves. In particular, a correlation between the relative velocity change and the average steel strain in the reinforcement is derived that covers 90% of the total bearing capacity. The purely empirical model yields a linear function with a high level of accuracy (R 2 =0.99, R2=0.99, RMSE≈90μ
RMSE≈90μ strain).
Advanced ultrasonic imaging for concrete: Alternative imaging conditions for reverse time migration
(2018)
Ultrasound echo is a widely used NDT technique for determining the internal geometry of structures. Reverse-time migration (RTM) has been recently introduced to NDT applications, as an imaging method for ultrasound data, to overcome some of the limitations (e.g. imaging steeply dipping reflector) experienced by the Synthetic Aperture Focusing Technique (SAFT), the most commonly used imaging algorithm for these measurements.
The standard implementation of RTM also experiences some drawbacks caused by its imaging condition, which is based on the zero-lag of the cross-correlation between source and receiver wavefields and generates high-amplitude low-frequency artifacts. Three alternative imaging conditions, developed for seismic data applications, were tested for their ability to provide better images than the standard cross-correlation: illumination compensation, deconvolution and wavefield decomposition. A polyamide specimen was chosen for the simulation of a synthetic experiment and for real data acquisition. The migrations of both synthetic and real data were performed with the software Madagascar. The illumination imaging condition was able to reduce the low-frequency noise and had a good performance in terms of computing time. The deconvolution improved the resolution in the synthetic tests, but did not showed such benefit for the real experiments. Finally, as for the wavefield decomposition, although it presented some advantages in terms of attenuating the low-frequency noise and some unwanted reflections, it was not able to image the internal structure of the polyamide as well as the cross-correlation did. Suggestions on how to improve the cost-effectiveness of the implementation of the deconvolution and wavefield decomposition were presented, as well as possible investigations that could be carried out in the future, in order to obtain better results with those two imaging conditions.
Ultrasound echo is a widely used NDT technique for determining the internal geometry of structures. Reverse-time migration (RTM) has been recently introduced to NDT applications, as an imaging method for ultrasound data, to overcome some of the limitations (e.g. imaging steeply dipping reflector) experienced by the Synthetic Aperture Focusing Technique (SAFT), the most commonly used imaging algorithm for these measurements.
The standard implementation of RTM also experiences some drawbacks caused by its imaging condition, which is based on the zero-lag of the cross-correlation between source and receiver wavefields and generates high-amplitude low-frequency artifacts. Three alternative imaging conditions, developed for seismic data applications, were tested for their ability to provide better images than the standard cross-correlation: illumination compensation, deconvolution and wavefield decomposition. A polyamide specimen was chosen for the simulation of a synthetic experiment and for real data acquisition. The migrations of both synthetic and real data were performed with the software Madagascar. The illumination imaging condition was able to reduce the low-frequency noise and had a good performance in terms of computing time. The deconvolution improved the resolution in the synthetic tests, but did not showed such benefit for the real experiments. Finally, as for the wavefield decomposition, although it presented some advantages in terms of attenuating the low-frequency noise and some unwanted reflections, it was not able to image the internal structure of the polyamide as well as the cross-correlation did. Suggestions on how to improve the cost-effectiveness of the implementation of the deconvolution and wavefield decomposition were presented, as well as possible investigations that could be carried out in the future, in order to obtain better results with those two imaging conditions.
Due to the penetration of harmful chlorides into concrete, e.g. from de-icing salt, damage processes such as chloride-related pitting corrosion can occur if critical values are exceeded. In this study, multiphase materials such as chloride-contaminated concrete are examined in detail. A direct comparison is made by analyzing the spectroscopic information of simultaneously measured atomic and molecular emissions with laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS). In addition, the influence on the calibration is examined on the basis of the combined spectral information of both reaction paths of the penetrated chlorides. The calibration models of univariate and multivariate methods were validated using reference samples with wet chemical analysis. The results are applied to a concrete sample of a parking deck, which was also analyzed by potentiometric wet chemistry. In order to account for the heterogeneity of concrete, spatially (200 μm) and spectroscopically (0.1 nm) resolved LIBS measurements were performed using a fully automated laboratory system. Simultaneous measurements with three spectrometers allow the analysis of the emission processes of several elements such as Cl, Ca, O, Si and Mg as well as the newly formed molecules CaO and CaCl. The evaluation of the molecular emission in combination with atomic lines extends the analytical performance, since different concrete phases such as aggregates and cement matrix can be better represented. The measurements were carried out in ambient air and with helium purge gas. The limit of detection (LOD) achieved for a combined evaluation of atomic and molecular emission was determined to be 0.028 wt%.
During their life span, concrete structures interact with many kinds of external mechanical loads. Most of these loads are considered in advance and result in reversible deformations. Nevertheless, some of the loads cause irreversible, sometimes unnoticed changes below the macroscopic scale depending on the type and dimension of the impact. As the functionality of concrete structures is often relevant to safety and society, their condition must be known and, therefore, assessed on a regular basis. Out of the spectrum of non-destructive monitoring methods, Coda Wave Interferometry using embedded ultrasonic sensors is one particularly sensitive technique to evaluate changes to heterogeneous media. However, there are various influences on Coda waves in concrete, and the interpretation of their superimposed effect is ambiguous. In this study, we quantify the relations of uniaxial compression and uniaxial tension on Coda waves propagating in normal concrete. We found that both the signal correlation of ultrasonic signals as well as their velocity variation directly reflect the stress change in concrete structures in a laboratory environment. For the linear elastic range up to 30% of the strength, we calculated a velocity variation of −0.97‰/MPa for compression and 0.33%/MPa for tension using linear regression. In addition, these parameters revealed even weak irreversible changes after removal of the load. Furthermore, we show the time-dependent effects of shrinkage and creep on Coda waves by providing the development of the signal parameters over time during half a year together with creep recovery. Our observations showed that time-dependent material changes must be taken into account for any comparison of ultrasonic signals that are far apart in time. The study’s results demonstrate how Coda Wave Interferometry is capable of monitoring stress changes and detecting even small-size microstructural changes. By indicating the stated relations and their separation from further impacts, e.g., temperature and moisture, we anticipate our study to contribute to the qualification of Coda Wave Interferometry for its application as an early-warning system for concrete structures.
Monitoring of concrete structures is of utmost importance in maintenance and preservation of infrastructure. As a part of the DFG research group CoDA (Concrete Damage Assessment by Coda Waves), the works within this PhD project aim for identification of damage sensitive parameters extracted from ultrasonic measurements obtained with embedded sensors, the determination of environmental (reversible) influences on the signal and the localisation of damaged areas. The main technique used for the detection of changes in the monitored material is the so-called Coda Wave Interferometry (CWI). It uses the later part of the ultrasonic recording for the detection of small changes in the sensed area and the calculation of a relative velocity change. Using this technique we can show that we are able to detect changes in concrete temperature with ultrasound measurements. This enables temperature correction for ultrasound monitoring with embedded sensors. The crucial point for imaging and localisation with coda waves is the calculation of the so-called sensitivity kernels. We propose the application of numerical wave simulations for the kernel calculations instead of the commonly used diffusivity equation. Using finite-difference wave modelling code from our DFG project partners we are able to calculate those Kernels and first results are shown in this presentation. The major task for the second year will be the development and implementation of the inversion algorithm as well as the preparation of validation experiments.
Ultrasonic coda wave interferometry can detect small changes in scattering materials like concrete. We embedded ultrasonic transducers in the Gänstorbrücke Ulm, a monitored road bridge in Germany, to test the methodology. Since fall 2020, we've been monitoring parts of the bridge and comparing the results to commercial monitoring systems. We calculate signal and volumetric velocity changes using coda waves, and long-term measurements show that the influence of temperature on strains and ultrasound velocity changes can be monitored. Velocity change maps indicate that different parts of the bridge react differently to environmental temperature changes, revealing local material property differences. A load experiment with trucks allows calibration to improve detectability of possibly damaging events. Our work focuses on measurement reliability, potential use of and distinction from temperature effects, combination with complementary sensing systems, and converting measured values to information for damage and life cycle assessment.
Ultrasonic coda wave interferometry can detect small changes in scattering materials like concrete. We embedded ultrasonic transducers in the Gänstorbrücke Ulm, a monitored road bridge in Germany, to test the methodology. Since fall 2020, we've been monitoring parts of the bridge and comparing the results to commercial monitoring systems. We calculate signal and volumetric velocity changes using coda waves, and long-term measurements show that the influence of temperature on strains and ultrasound velocity changes can be monitored. Velocity change maps indicate that different parts of the bridge react differently to environmental temperature changes, revealing local material property differences. A load experiment with trucks allows calibration to improve detectability of possibly damaging events. Our work focuses on measurement reliability, potential use of and distinction from temperature effects, combination with complementary sensing systems, and converting measured values to information for damage and life cycle assessment.
This paper describes a new ultrasonic measuring device called “W-Box”. It was developed based on the requirements of the DFG Forschergruppe (research unit) CoDA for a portable device for monitoring of concrete specimens, models and actual structures using embedded ultrasonic transducers as well as temperature and humidity sensors. The W-Box can send ultrasonic pulses with a variable frequency of 50–100 kHz to one selectable transducer and records signals from up to 75 multiplexed channels with a sample rate of 1 MHz and a resolution of 14 bits. In addition, it measures temperature and humidity with high accuracy, adjustable amplification, restarts automatically after a power failure and can be fully controlled remotely. The measured data are automatically stored locally on-site data quality checks and transferred to remote servers. The comparison of the W-Box with a laboratory setup using commercial devices proves that it is equally reliable and precise, at much lower cost. The W-Box also shows that their measurement capacities, with the used embedded ultrasonic transducers, can reach above 6 m in concrete.
High sensitivity is an important requirement for air-coupled ultrasonic sensors applied to materials testing. With a lower acoustic impedance than any piezoelectric material, charged cellular polypropylene (PP) offers better matching to air with a similar piezoelectric coefficient. The piezoelectric properties of charged cellular PP originate from their polarization, creating permanent internal voltage. The sensitivity of the sensor can be increased by applying additional dc bias voltage, as it has been done already for transmitters. This work presents the first ultrasonic sensor based on charged cellular PP including a high-voltage module providing dc bias voltage up to 2 kV. This bias voltage led to an increase in the signal-to-noise ratio of up to 15 ± 1 dB. The measurement of the received signal depending on the applied bias voltage is proposed as a new method of determining the internal voltage of ferroelectrets. The sensor combined with a cellular PP transmitter was applied to nondestructive testing of a rotor blade segment and glued-laminated timber, enabling imaging of the internal structure of these specimens with a thickness around 4 cm.
"This data set contains three different data types obtained from concrete specimens. For each specimen, the rebound numbers, ultrasonic data (ultrasonic velocity, time of flight), and destructive concrete strength are given. Two kind of specimen geometries were tested: cubes and drilled cores. The files are labeled according to the specimen geometry as "cube" or "core" and the type of measurement data as "compressive_strength", "rn_R" and "rn_Q" for rebound numbers as well as "us" for ultrasonic data. The ultrasonic data were generated by six independent laboratories, the rebound numbers by five independent laboratories and the destructive tests by one laboratory. The designation of each specimen establishes the relationship between the different data types."
This data set contains three different data types obtained from concrete specimens. For each specimen, the rebound numbers, ultrasonic data (ultrasonic velocity, time of flight), and destructive concrete strength are given. Two kind of specimen geometries were tested: cubes and drilled cores. The files are labeled according to the specimen geometry as "cube" or "core" and the type of measurement data as "compressive_strength", "rn_R" and "rn_Q" for rebound numbers as well as "us" for ultrasonic data. The ultrasonic data were generated by six independent laboratories, the rebound numbers by five independent laboratories and the destructive tests by one laboratory. The designation of each specimen establishes the relationship between the different data types.
Two test series were examined using nondestructive measuring methods by six independent laboratories before determining their compressive strength. The nondestructive test methods used were the rebound hammer and ultrasonic pulse velocity measurement. Two types of geometries were investigated: drilled cores and cubes. The measurement procedure for each of these datasets is conditioned to the geometry and is therefore different.
The first series consists of 20 drilled cores (approximately diameter/height = 10 cm/20 cm) from the 55-year-old Lahntal Viaduct near Limburg, Germany. After preparation in the first laboratory, the lateral surface of the drilled cores was tested with the rebound hammer using a given pattern. Every laboratory tested every drilled core at different locations.
Ultrasonic measurements in transmission were performed repeatedly at predefined points on the flat surfaces of the specimen.
The second series consisted of 25 newly manufactured concrete cubes of a mix with a target concrete strength class of C30/37. The edge length was 15 cm. Each laboratory received five specimens of this test series. Thus, contrary to the first series, each specimen was tested by only one laboratory. Two side faces of each cube were tested with the rebound hammer. In addition, ultrasonic measurements were performed by one laboratory. The time of flight was measured between the tested side faces of the rebound hammer at different positions.
For both series, rebound hammers were used to determine the R-value as well as the Q-value. The rebound hammer models within the laboratories were always the same, while they differed between the laboratories. The ultrasonic measurements took place with different measurement systems and couplants. Finally, both specimen series were tested destructively for compressive strength.
The dataset contains the raw data summarized in tabular form. In addition, relevant calculated data are included in some cases. For the ultrasonic measurements, the time of flight has already been converted into the ultrasonic velocity. Besides, in addition to the raw data of the compressive strength test (force, weight, and geometry values), the calculated compressive strengths and densities are also provided.
Accuracy of calibration-free (CF) methods in laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) depends on experimental conditions and instrumental parameters that must match a CF LIBS model. Here, the numerical study is performed to investigate effects of various factors, such as the optical density, plasma uniformity, line overlap, noise, spectral resolution, electron density and path length on the results of CF-LIBS analyses. The effects are examined one-by-one using synthetic spectra of steel slag samples that fully comply with the mathematical model of the method. Also, the algorithm includes several new features in comparison with previously proposed CF algorithms. In particular, it removes limits on the optical thickness of spectral lines that are used for the construction of the Saha-Boltzmann plot; it retrieves the absorption path length (Plasma diameter) directly from spectral lines; it uses the more realistic Voigt line profile function instead of the Lorentzian function; and it employs the pre-calculated and tabulated thin-to-thick line ratios instead of approximating functions for selfabsorption correction.
To conduct a reliable, repeatable and accurate LIBS analysis, the optimization of the experimental setup is an important task. Hardware parameters of lasers and spectrometers used in the setup as well as additionally required components such as optics or process gas pipes must be carefully aligned and adjusted because factors like (i) focal conditions of the optics, (ii) alignment of the sample, (iii) process purge gas (types, flow rate) or (iv) measurement settings (integration time, accumulation of pulses) have a big impact on the signal quality. Therefore, in most cases the effect of different factors is evaluated empirically due to changing one factor at a time while keeping the overall configuration the same. In the end, the optimal configuration is selected based on the best parameters for each influencing factor. During optimization, a configuration of the experimental setup is aimed at, which allows e.g. the highest signal intensity or the lowest variation. In most cases, cross-correlation, interference and interaction among the various factors are not considered. For this reason, the possibilities of using Design of Experiment (DoE) to optimize a LIBS experiment will be shown and advantages of (i) reduction of testing plans using a feature space, (ii) identifying and considering cross-correlations and interactions, (iii) evaluating individual impacts on the measurement (e.g. contour and surface plots) as well as (iv) multivariate models for prediction of impacts will be presented.
Im Zuge der Ist-Zustandserfassung von Stahl- und Spannbetonbauwerken spielt die chemische Analyse von Beton eine zentrale Rolle. Durch den externen Eintrag von schädigenden Substanzen wie Chlorid oder Alkalien aus Tausalzen oder Meerwasser, kann u.U. der Beton und/oder die Stahlbewehrung angegriffen werden. Bei Überschreitung kritischer korrosionsauslösender Chloridgehalte, z.B. bei Stahlbeton 0,4 M.-% (bzw. 0,5 M.-%) und Spannbeton 0,2 M.-% bezogen auf den Zement, erhöht sich das Risiko für eine Chlorid-induzierte Korrosion. Für die Beurteilung eines Instandsetzungsbedarfs und, sofern notwendig, der Erarbeitung eines Instandsetzungskonzeptes muss nach der Rili-SIB1 ein sachkundiger Planer herangezogen werden. Standardmäßig werden für die chemische Analyse Bohrkerne bzw. Bohrmehlproben aus dem zu untersuchenden Bauwerk entnommen und nach aufwendiger Probenvorbereitung nasschemisch analysiert (nach DAfStb Heft 401 oder DIN 14629). Dabei wird der Gesamtchloridgehalt bezogen auf die Einwaage angegeben. Eine Umrechnung auf den Zementgehalt erfolgt i.d.R. durch Schätzwerte. Der Einsatz der laserinduzierten Plasmaspektroskopie (LIBS) wird seit Mitte der 90er Jahren an der Bundesanstalt für Materialforschung und -prüfung erforscht, um den Chloridgehalt durch eine ortsaufgelöste Elementanalyse an einer Betonprobe möglichst genau zu ermitteln. Die zweidimensionale LIBS-Messung mit einer lateralen Auflösung von 100 µm x 100 µm erlaubt die Berücksichtigung der Heterogenität von Beton. Dabei lassen sich die Bindemittelmatrix und die Gesteinskörnung separat betrachten, wodurch sich die Aussagekraft der Ergebnisse und somit die Sicherheit der chemischen Zustandserfassung erhöht. Durch die stetige Weiterentwicklung von Komponenten wie Laser, Spektrometer und analytischer Auswerteroutinen sind mittlerweile automatisierte Systeme für die schnelle LIBS-Analyse auf dem Markt verfügbar. In diesem Vortrag wird der aktuelle Stand der Technik anhand von Praxisbeispielen präsentiert und entscheidende Vorteile gegenüber dem Standardverfahren herausgestellt. Aufgrund der Möglichkeit für eine simultane Multielementanalyse mit LIBS werden weitere Anwendungen, wie z.B. die Ermittlung der Karbonatisierungstiefe, Untersuchungen von Transportprozessen, Chlorideintrag entlang von Rissen oder Untersuchungen von Elementverteilungen im Kontext einer AKR vorgestellt.
Schnelle ortsaufgelöste Chloridbestimmung mit der laserinduzierten Plasmaspektroskopie (LIBS)
(2020)
Im Zuge der Ist-Zustandserfassung von Stahl- und Spannbetonbauwerken spielt die chemische Analyse von Beton eine zentrale Rolle. Durch den externen Eintrag von schädigenden Substanzen wie Chlorid oder Alkalien aus Tausalzen oder Meerwasser, kann u.U. der Beton und/oder die Stahlbewehrung angegriffen werden. Bei Überschreitung kritischer korrosionsauslösender Chloridgehalte, z.B. bei Stahlbeton 0,4 M.-% (bzw. 0,5 M.-%) und Spannbeton 0,2 M.-% bezogen auf den Zement, erhöht sich das Risiko für eine Chlorid-induzierte Korrosion. Für die Beurteilung eines Instandsetzungsbedarfs und, sofern notwendig, der Erarbeitung eines Instandsetzungskonzeptes muss nach der Rili-SIB1 ein sachkundiger Planer herangezogen werden. Standardmäßig werden für die chemische Analyse Bohrkerne bzw. Bohrmehlproben aus dem zu untersuchenden Bauwerk entnommen und nach aufwendiger Probenvorbereitung nasschemisch analysiert (nach DAfStb Heft 401 oder DIN 14629). Dabei wird der Gesamtchloridgehalt bezogen auf die Einwaage angegeben. Eine Umrechnung auf den Zementgehalt erfolgt i.d.R. durch Schätzwerte. Der Einsatz der laserinduzierten Plasmaspektroskopie (LIBS) wird seit Mitte der 90er Jahren an der Bundesanstalt für Materialforschung und -prüfung erforscht, um den Chloridgehalt durch eine ortsaufgelöste Elementanalyse an einer Betonprobe möglichst genau zu ermitteln. Die zweidimensionale LIBS-Messung mit einer lateralen Auflösung von 100 µm x 100 µm erlaubt die Berücksichtigung der Heterogenität von Beton. Dabei lassen sich die Bindemittelmatrix und die Gesteinskörnung separat betrachten, wodurch sich die Aussagekraft der Ergebnisse und somit die Sicherheit der chemischen Zustandserfassung erhöht. Durch die stetige Weiterentwicklung von Komponenten wie Laser, Spektrometer und analytischer Auswerteroutinen sind mittlerweile automatisierte Systeme für die schnelle LIBS-Analyse auf dem Markt verfügbar. In diesem Vortrag wird der aktuelle Stand der Technik anhand von Praxisbeispielen präsentiert und entscheidende Vorteile gegenüber dem Standardverfahren herausgestellt. Aufgrund der Möglichkeit für eine simultane Multielementanalyse mit LIBS werden weitere Anwendungen, wie z.B. die Ermittlung der Karbonatisierungstiefe, Untersuchungen von Transportprozessen, Chlorideintrag entlang von Rissen oder Untersuchungen von Elementverteilungen im Kontext einer AKR vorgestellt.
Es geht auch einfacher
(2019)
Mit laserbasiertem Verfahren Zustand von Betonbauwerken erfassen: Die Laserinduzierte Breakdown Spektroskopie (LIBS) stellt eine Alternative zur nasschemischen Analyse dar, um den Zustand von Betonbauwerken zu erfassen. Bei diesem Verfahren laufen der Analysevorgang und die Auswertung automatisiert ab. Ein Prototyp für die mobile Anwendung auf der Baustelle steht zur Verfügung. So kann auf Knopfdruck ein schriftlicher Bericht erstellt werden, der einen genauen Wert für die Eindringtiefe eines relevanten Elements wie Chlorid ausgibt.
The analysis of the chemical composition of cement-based materials like concrete is a crucial task in civil engineering. Concrete is a multi-phase material made of cement, water, aggregates, additives and admixtures. During the damage assessment of concrete structures, the external ingress of harmful species like chlorine, alkalis or sulfates needs to be determined. In order to provide a fast and precise analysis of concrete the application of LIBS offers unique possibilities as the technique can detect all elements at air atmosphere.
To determine the condition of concrete, the information about the chemical composition, the ingress of harmful species as well as the evaluation of characteristic values like the used cement type or the type of aggregates are needed. This work presents the two-dimensional evaluation of concrete samples using LIBS and multivariate data analysis of atomic and molecular emission. For the evaluation of the main components different classification methods will be applied to identify the heterogeneity of the samples. With respect to their specific phase, different species will be quantified using multivariate regression (PLS) and important figures of merit will be presented. All results will be verified using Standard procedure of wet chemistry (XRF, potentiometric titration and ICP-OES).
In civil engineering, the laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy has been applied as a fast and reliable method for a quantitative evaluation of concrete cores. Due to a two-dimensional scanning, the heterogeneity of concrete can be evaluated and elements like Cl, Na, and S are related to the cement matrix only. This study deals with the temporal evaluation and imaging of laser-induced plasmas on cement-based materials, in order to investigate the impact of aggregates with diffrent grain size on the spectral response in LIBS.
New possibilities for concrete analysis 4.0 with the Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS)
(2020)
In civil engineering the damage assessment of concrete infrastructures is an important task to monitor and ensure the estimated life-time. The aging of concrete is caused by different damage processes like the chloride induced pitting corrosion of the reinforcement. The penetration depth and the concentration of harmful species are crucial factors in the damage assessment. As a highly cost and time-consuming standard procedure, the analysis of concrete drill cores or drilling by wet-chemistry is widely used. This method provides element concentration to the total mass as aggregates and binder are homogenized. In order to provide a method that is capable to detect the element concentration regarding the cement content only, the laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) will be presented. The LIBS method uses a focused pulsed laser on the sample surface to ablate material. The high-power density and the laser-material interaction causes a laser-induced plasma that emits elemental and molecular line emission due to energy transition of the excited species in the plasma during the cooling phase.
As each element provides element-specific line emission, it is in principle possible to detect any element on the periodic table (spectroscopic fingerprint) with one laser shot. In combination with a translation stage the sample under investigation can be spatially resolved using a scan raster with a resolution up to 100 µm (element mapping). Due to the high spatial resolution, the element distribution and the heterogeneity of the concrete can be evaluated. By using chemometrics the non-relevant aggregates can be excluded from the data set and the element concentration can be quantified and referred to a specific solid phase like the binding matrix (cement) only. In order to analyze transport processes like diffusion and migration the twodimensional element distributions can provide deep insight into the transport through the pore space and local enrichments of elements. As LIBS is a multi-elemental method it is also possible to compare the ingress and transport process of different elements like Cl, Na, K, S, C, and Li simultaneously and evaluate cross-correlations between the different ions. Furthermore, the element mapping allows to visualize the transport along cracks. This work will show the state of the art in terms of hardware and software for an automated LIBS system as well as different application for a concrete analysis 4.0. Focus will be the application of LIBS for a fast concrete analysis.
The effect of particle grain sizes in different cement-based mixtures on the laser-induced plasma evolution is studied using two experimental methods: (i) temporal and spatial evolution of the laser-induced shock wave is investigated using shadowgraphy and two-dimensional plasma imaging, and (ii) temporal and spatial distribution of elements in the plasma is investigated using two-dimensional spectral imaging. This study is motivated by the interest in applying laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) for chemical analysis of concrete, and subsequently obtain information related to damage assessment of structures like bridges and parking decks. The distribution of grain sizes is of major interest in civil engineering as for making concrete different aggregate grain sizes defined by a sieving curve (64mm to 0.125 mm) are needed. Aggregates up to a size of 180 μm can be excluded from the data set, therefore only the amount of small aggregates with a grain size below 180 μm must be considered with LIBS. All components of the concrete with a grain size smaller than 0.125mm are related to the flour grain content. Tested samples consisted of dry and hardened cement paste (water-cement ratio w/z=0.5), which served as a reference. Aggregate mixtures were made by adding flour grains (size 40 μm) and silica fume (size 0.1 μm) in different ratios to cement: 10%, 30%, 50% and 60%, all combined to the remaining percentage of dry or hydrated cement. The visualization results show that a dependance in the evolution of the plasma as a function of sample grain size can be detected only in the initial stages of the plasma formation, that is, at the initial 3 μs of the plasma life. Spectral information reveals the elemental distribution of the silicon and calcium in plasma, in both neutral and ionized form. Here also, a significant effect is observed in the first 1 μs of the plasma lifetime.
In civil engineering concrete is the most used building material for making infrastructures like bridges and parking decks worldwide. It is as a porous and multiphase material made of aggregates with a defined grain size distribution, cement and water as well as different additives and admixtures depending on the application. Different grain sizes are important to ensure the needed density and compressive strength.
The resulting porous cement matrix contains a mixture of flour grains (aggregates with a grain size below 125 lm) and cement particles (particle size≈50lm). Harmful species like chlorides may penetrate together with water through the capillary pore space and may trigger different damage processes. The damage assessment of concrete structures in Germany is estimated due to the quantification of harmful elements regarding to the cement content only. In the evaluation of concrete using LIBS a two-dimensional scanning is necessary to consider the heterogeneity caused by the aggregates. Therefore, a LIBS system operating with a low energy NdCr:YAG laser, a pulse energy of 3 mJ, a wavelength of 1064 nm, a pulse width of 1.5 ns and a Repetition rate of 100 Hz has been used. Different Czerny-Turner spectrometers with CCD detectors in the UV and NIR range have been used for the detection. Large aggregates (macro-heterogeneity) can be excluded from the evaluation, whereas small aggregates in the range of the laser spot size (flour grains) cannot be spatially resolved. In this work the micro heterogeneity caused by flour grains and their impact on the quantification with LIBS will be discussed. To analyze the effect of changing grain sizes and ratios, the ablation behavior has been determined and compared. Samples with defined grain sizes were made and analyzed using LIBS.
The grain size distributions were analyzed with laser diffraction (LDA).
The ultrasonic echo technique is frequently used in non-destructive testing (NDT) of concrete structures for thickness measurements, geometry determinations as well as localization of built-in components. To improve ultrasonic imaging of complex structures in concrete, we transferred a geophysical imaging technique, the reverse time migration (RTM), to NDT in civil engineering. In contrast to the conventionally used synthetic aperture focusing technique (SAFT) algorithms, RTM is a wavefield continuation method in time and uses the full wave equation. Thus, RTM can handle complicated wave propagations in any direction without dip limitation. In this paper, we focused on the application and evaluation of a two-dimensional (2D) elastic RTM algorithm considering compressional waves, vertically polarized shear waves, and Rayleigh waves. We tested the elastic RTM routine on synthetic ultrasonic echo data generated with a 2D concrete model consisting of several steps and circular air inclusions. As these complex structures can often be found in real-world NDT use cases, their imaging is especially important. By using elastic RTM, we were able to clearly reproduce vertical reflectors and lower edges of circular air voids inside our numerical concrete model. Such structures cannot be imaged with conventional SAFT algorithms. Furthermore, the used elastic RTM approach also yielded a better reconstruction of a horizontal reflector and upper boundaries of circular air inclusions. Our encouraging results demonstrate that elastic RTM has the potential to significantly improve the imaging of complex concrete structures and, thus, is a step forward for detailed, high-quality ultrasonic NDT in civil engineering.
This dataset contains raw data resulting from Impact-Echo measurements at the reference concrete block "IE Platte", located at BAM (German Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing).
The specimen contains three polystyrene slabs and one polyethylene foil to act as reflectors. The specimen was produced in a three-step process. First, the base plate was cast. Second, the reflectors were taped to the base plate. Finally, the upper layer was cast on top of base plate and reflectors. A drawing is contained in the dataset.
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 publications 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 29x29 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.
Dieses erste Memorandum zur Lehre und Forschung an deutschsprachigen Hochschulen auf dem Gebiet der zerstörungsfreien Prüfung im Bauwesen gibt einen Überblick hinsichtlich der akademischen Ausbildung und zeigt mögliche Schwerpunkte vor allem in der Lehre auf. Diese Schwerpunkte berücksichtigen auch aktuelle Entwicklungen und Themen auf dem Gebiet der Forschung. Es werden Anregungen zur Entwicklung bzw. Weiterentwicklung der Lehr-Curricula im Hinblick auf eine umfassende und solide fachliche Ausbildung der Studierenden des Bauwesens und angrenzender Fachrichtungen gegeben. Inhaltlich und formal lehnt sich der Beitrag an dem Memorandum der Hochschullehrer im Fachgebiet „Werkstoffe im Bauwesen“ (Breit et al., 2012) an und beruht auf einer Initiative des Unterausschusses Ausbildung – Arbeitsgruppe Ausbildung in der Hochschule – des Fachausschusses ZfP im Bauwesen der Deutschen Gesellschaft für zerstörungsfreie Prüfung (DGZfP). Die Hauptredaktion wurde übernommen von Prof. Christian U. Grosse (TU München) und Prof. Ralf W. Arndt (FH Erfurt).
The relevance of chloride measurements in practice for durability condition assessment and a description of the working principle of LIBS will be given. A comparison of chloride profiles obtained by the common wet chemical analysis and results from LIBS measurements are shown to demonstrate the accuracy of the LIBS-technique. In addition, an example on the extra information resulting from measurements performed with LIBS for improvement of condition assessment and prediction will be shown.
This paper will address the relevance of chloride measurements in practice for durability condition assessment and a description of the working principle of LIBS will be given. Examples of chloride profiles obtained by the common wet chemical analysis will be shown and compared with results from LIBS measurements as to demonstrate the accuracy of the LIBS-technique. The latter will be supported by clear graphs. In addition examples on the extra information resulting from measurements performed with LIBS for improvement of condition assessment and prediction will be shown.
For the determination of the remaining life-time and the degree of damage of reinforced concrete structures such as marine construction, bridges or parking decks, a highly precise measurement of harmful species is also required for trace elements. One of the most interesting elements is chlorine, because above a certain threshold corrosion is triggered. To increase the intensity of the chlorine line, helium is usually used, which is costly. To overcome this problem, low electrical discharge reheating is used which operates in air atmosphere. A comparison between results obtained by measuring with helium and reheating by electrical discharge is presented. The performance is compared by the resulting calibration curves and the calculated limit of detection obtained by 15 reference samples based on cement with NaCl. Concentrations of reference samples range from 0.05 to 2.5 wt% chlorine.
The Laser-induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) is an useful analytical technique for the chlorine detection in building materials, specifically in the reinforcement concrete. If chlorine exceeds a specific concentration threshold, the result can be pitting corrosion of the reinforcement, which affects the stability and lifetime of building structures like marine constructions, bridges or parking decks. The critical chlorine content based to cement is 0.4 wt.-% based to the cement for reinforced concrete. The ingress of chlorides from sea water or de-icing salt leads to corrosion of the reinforcement.
The chlorine spectral line Cl I at 837.59 nm shows a good performance in helium atmosphere. For measurements without helium we used a electric discharge setup to reheat the Laser-induced plasma with a voltage below 100 V. In this case the reheating shows an increasing chlorine emission in air atmosphere.
This work shows chlorine calibration curves with LIBS in a helium flow and LIBS with electric discharge reheating in air atmosphere. The determination of the limit of detection (LOD) for both setups and the measurement results of a drill core sample with a quantitative chlorine ingress profile will be presented.
The durability and the lifetime of reinforced concrete structures can be drastically reduced by the influence of damage processes. One of the most common causes is chloride-induced corrosion, which is triggered by increased chloride content near the reinforcement. In a study, the chloride content should be determined directly at corrosion areas. The LIBS system used consists of a micro-chip laser (3 mJ, 100 Hz, 1.5ins) and two compact spectrometers covering the wavelength range of 177-355 nm (UV) and 750-940 nm (NIR). The analysis of the chloride content was carried out via the atomic chlorine spectral line 837.59 nm, using helium for signal amplification. Calibrations were carried out for quantitative chlorine measurements with 15 reference samples in the working range of 0.05 to 6.00 wt% chlorine. The calibration of the LIBS system was done according to DIN 32 645 and was tested for linearity. The determination of the quantitative chlorine contents was carried out on samples which were broken and thus have a high surface roughness. This requires real time correction of the focus point to compensate for the roughness of the samples. The poster shows spatially resolved element distributions and determined quantitative chloride concentrations near the corrosion Areas.
Die vorliegende Arbeit beschäftigt sich mit der Entwicklung eines Versuchsstandes zur Di-ckenbestimmung von Werkstoffen mithilfe von frequenzmoduliertem luftgekoppelten Ultra-schall. Zur Erzeugung des frequenzmoduliertem Signals wird ein fluidischer Oszillator ver-wendet. Die Schwingungsfrequenz des Oszillators ist von der Größe, der Geometrie und den Druckverhältnissen im Oszillator abhängig, welche durch ein Druckventil veränderbar sind. Zur Datenfassung dienen zwei Laservibrometer. Weiterhin soll die schlussendliche Dicken-bestimmung mithilfe eines Kreuzkorrelationsverfahrens erreicht werden. Während der Ent-wicklung wurden Messungen im Medium Luft, als auch mit Polyamid-Probekörpern durchge-führt. Für die Luftmessungen wurde das Ultraschallsignal an zwei Messpunkten erfasst und der Abstand zwischen diesen Messpunkten daraufhin versucht zu ermitteln. Diese Abstand-messungen wurden mit unterschiedlichen Abständen von 6 bis 15 Zentimeter durchgeführt, wobei der Abstand anhand der Daten mit einer Abweichung von unter einem Zentimeter er-folgreich bestimmt werden konnte. Die Messungen am Probekörper waren weniger Erfolg-reich, da keine reproduzierbare Dickenbestimmung erreicht werden konnte. Trotzdem kann die Entwicklung aufgrund der erfolgreichen Abstandmessung in der Luft sowie den neuen Erkenntnissen aus den Messungen am Probekörper als Erfolg betrachtet werden.
Data fusion for multi-sensor nondestructive detection of surface cracks in ferromagnetic materials
(2018)
Fatigue cracking is a dangerous and cost-intensive phenomenon that requires early detection. But at high test sensitivity, the abundance of false indications limits the reliability of conventional materials testing. This thesis exploits the diversity of physical principles that different nondestructive surface inspection methods offer, by applying data fusion techniques to increase the reliability of defect detection. The first main contribution are novel approaches for the fusion of NDT images. These surface scans are obtained from state-of-the-art inspection procedures in Eddy Current Testing, Thermal Testing and Magnetic Flux Leakage Testing. The implemented image fusion strategy demonstrates that simple algebraic fusion rules are sufficient for high performance, given adequate signal normalization. Data fusion reduces the rate of false positives is reduced by a factor of six over the best individual sensor at a 10 μm deep groove. Moreover, the utility of state-of-the-art image representations, like the Shearlet domain, are explored. However, the theoretical advantages of such directional transforms are not attained in practice with the given data. Nevertheless, the benefit of fusion over single-sensor inspection is confirmed a second time. Furthermore, this work proposes novel techniques for fusion at a high level of signal abstraction. A kernel-based approach is introduced to integrate spatially scattered detection hypotheses. This method explicitly deals with registration errors that are unavoidable in practice. Surface discontinuities as shallow as 30 μm are reliably found by fusion, whereas the best individual sensor requires depths of 40–50 μm for successful detection. The experiment is replicated on a similar second test specimen. Practical guidelines are given at the end of the thesis, and the need for a data sharing initiative is stressed to promote future research on this topic.
Increasing traffic volume on the one hand and ageing infrastructure on the other hand have created many new challenges for maintenance and structural health monitoring of roads and bridges. In the past, many bridges and road structures have been neglected, often resulting in traffic congestion, road closure, and increased repair costs.
This research is concerned with the development of a system to improve the challenge of maintenance and early detection of damage, particularly moisture penetration and corrosion of steel reinforced concrete components. The objective is to develop a method that will also work after 30 years and longer. Many new IoT solutions are equipped with internal energy storage elements (accumulators or batteries) which are inappropriate here, since most relevant signs of concrete degradation occur after decades, where the functioning of such elements are more than questionable. The presented technology approach uses radio-frequency identification (RFID) and enables connectivity to sensors. It offers the advantage of an passive, completely independent energy supply without any energy storage components.
Since the system should be permanently embedded in concrete, it is crucial to develop a long-term stable device which is adapted to the environmental influences of the structure, e.g., long-term resistance in very alkaline environment of pH 13. In numerous experiments, the robustness of the system was tested and evaluated. Various tests with encapsulations to protect the electronics were performed, and for long-term validation different concrete specimens were instrumented with RFID-sensor-systems. Their operating time is now around two years and investigations for signs of fatigue and damage to the encapsulation and the electronics are ongoing.
Increasing traffic volume on the one hand and ageing infrastructure on the other hand have created many new challenges for maintenance and structural health monitoring of roads and bridges. In the past, many bridges and road structures have been neglected, often resulting in traffic congestion, road closure, and increased repair costs.
This research is concerned with the development of a system to improve the challenge of maintenance and early detection of damage, particularly moisture penetration and corrosion of steel reinforced concrete components. The objective is to develop a method that will also work after 30 years and longer. Many new IoT solutions are equipped with internal energy storage elements (accumulators or batteries) which are inappropriate here, since most relevant signs of concrete degradation occur after decades, where the functioning of such elements are more than questionable. The presented technology approach uses radio-frequency identification (RFID) and enables connectivity to sensors. It offers the advantage of an passive, completely independent energy supply without any energy storage components.
Since the system should be permanently embedded in concrete, it is crucial to develop a long-term stable device which is adapted to the environmental influences of the structure, e.g., long-term resistance in very alkaline environment of pH 13. In numerous experiments, the robustness of the system was tested and evaluated. Various tests with encapsulations to protect the electronics were performed, and for long-term validation different concrete specimens were instrumented with RFID-sensor-systems. Their operating time is now around two years and investigations for signs of fatigue and damage to the encapsulation and the electronics are ongoing.
Increasing traffic volume on the one hand and ageing infrastructure on the other hand have created many new challenges for maintenance and structural health monitoring of roads and bridges. In the past, many bridges and road structures have been neglected, often resulting in traffic congestion, road closure, and increased repair costs.
This research is concerned with the development of a system to improve the challenge of maintenance and early detection of damage, particularly moisture penetration and corrosion of steel reinforced concrete components. The objective is to develop a method that will also work after 30 years and longer. Many new IoT solutions are equipped with internal energy storage elements (accumulators or batteries) which are inappropriate here, since most relevant signs of concrete degradation occur after decades, where the functioning of such elements are more than questionable. The presented technology approach uses radio-frequency identification (RFID) and enables connectivity to sensors. It offers the advantage of an passive, completely independent energy supply without any energy storage components.
Since the system should be permanently embedded in concrete, it is crucial to develop a long-term stable device which is adapted to the environmental influences of the structure, e.g., long-term resistance in very alkaline environment of pH 13. In numerous experiments, the robustness of the system was tested and evaluated. Various tests with encapsulations to protect the electronics were performed, and for long-term validation different concrete specimens were instrumented with RFID-sensor-systems. Their operating time is now around two years and investigations for signs of fatigue and damage to the encapsulation and the electronics are ongoing.
Im DIN-Normenausschuss Materialprüfung (NMP) wurde das Normungsgremium NA 062-08-28 AA „Qualifizierung von zerstörungsfreien Prüfungen“ reaktiviert. Das Ziel der Reaktivierung ist die Erarbeitung einer Norm für einen standardisierten Prozess zur probabilistischen Bewertung von Prüfverfahren.
In der zerstörungsfreien Prüfung (ZfP) führt die Ermittlung von Mess- / Prüfunsicherheiten von Prüfverfahren, in normativer Hinsicht in Deutschland und Europa, noch ein Schattendasein. Die Norm ISO IEC 17025 und auch der VDA-Band 5 wurden weiter in Richtung Messunsicherheit entwickelt, allerdings führt ihre Anwendung in der ZfP zu Problemen.
Der Arbeitsausschuss NA 062-08-28 AA soll hier den Brückenschlag zwischen Messunsicherheit, objektiver statistischer Bewertung für ZfP-Verfahren und eine weitere Stärkung der probabilistischen Bruchmechanik erreichen. Geplant ist daher die Erarbeitung einer DIN-Norm, welche die Kriterien für eine korrekte Versuchsplanung, ein praktikables Vorgehen zur Bewertung der Prüfergebnisse und die mathematische Überführung in eine Zuverlässigkeitsaussage enthält. Es soll ein Leitfaden erstellt werden, der für ein möglichst breites Branchenspektrum eingesetzt werden kann, unabhängig von den Besonderheiten verschiedener Industriezweige.
Dargestellt werden das relevante Normungsgremium sowie der Hintergrund des zu erstellenden Dokuments.
Im DIN-Normenausschuss Materialprüfung (NMP) wurde das Normungsgremium NA 062-08-28 AA „Qualifizierung von zerstörungsfreien Prüfungen“ reaktiviert. Das Ziel der Reaktivierung ist die Erarbeitung einer Norm für einen standardisierten Prozess zur probabilistischen Bewertung von Prüfverfahren.
In der zerstörungsfreien Prüfung (ZfP) führt die Ermittlung von Mess- / Prüfunsicherheiten von Prüfverfahren, in normativer Hinsicht in Deutschland und Europa, noch ein Schattendasein. Die Norm ISO IEC 17025 und auch der VDA-Band 5 wurden weiter in Richtung Messunsicherheit entwickelt, allerdings führt ihre Anwendung in der ZfP zu Problemen.
Der Arbeitsausschuss NA 062-08-28 AA soll hier den Brückenschlag zwischen Messunsicherheit, objektiver statistischer Bewertung für ZfP-Verfahren und eine weitere Stärkung der probabilistischen Bruchmechanik erreichen. Geplant ist daher die Erarbeitung einer DIN-Norm, welche die Kriterien für eine korrekte Versuchsplanung, ein praktikables Vorgehen zur Bewertung der Prüfergebnisse und die mathematische Überführung in eine Zuverlässigkeitsaussage enthält. Es soll ein Leitfaden erstellt werden, der für ein möglichst breites Branchenspektrum eingesetzt werden kann, unabhängig von den Besonderheiten verschiedener Industriezweige.
Dargestellt werden das relevante Normungsgremium sowie der Hintergrund des zu erstellenden Dokuments.
Leitungswasserschäden nahmen im Jahr 2016 mit rund 2,6 Milliarden Euro den größten Posten bei Gebäudeversicherungen ein. Die Bestimmung und Lokalisierung des Schadensausmaßes ist dabei ein erster wichtiger Schritt, um die erforderlichen Sanierungsarbeiten abschätzen und effizient vornehmen zu können. Hierfür sind Radar und Neutronensonden bereits etablierte Verfahren. Für verlässliche Aussagen zum quantitativen Feuchtegehalt eines Baustoffes werden jedoch zerstörende Sondierungsbohrungen zur Kalibrierung der aufgenommenen Daten benötigt. Dieser hohe zeitliche und finanzielle Aufwand soll zukünftig durch den parallelen Einsatz der genannten Messverfahren verhindert werden.
In der durchgeführten Studie wurden Estrichprobekörper auf Zement- und Anhydritbasis mit variablen Dicken und Festigkeiten hergestellt und deren Austrocknung mit Radar und Neutronensonde über einen Zeitraum von 90 Tagen beobachtet. Als Referenzverfahren zur Ermittlung des Feuchteverlaufs dienten die gravimetrische Darr- und chemische Calcium-Carbid-Methode, welche an kleineren Schwesterproben der gleichen Charge angewendet wurden. Kontinuierliche Wägungen der größeren Probekörper gaben hierbei Aufschluss über den durch Austrocknung schwindende Wasseranteil.
Aus dem aufgenommen Radardatensatz konnten anschließend markante Signalmerkmale im Zeit- und Frequenzbereich extrahiert und deren Zusammenhang zum Feuchtegehalt der Estrichtypen untersucht werden. Hierbei wurden gängige Methoden aus der Literatur zur Feuchtemessung mit Radar angewandt, wobei die Kombination dieser und das Hinzuziehen der Neutronensonde mittels Datenfusion zu einem höheren Informationsgehalt beiträgt. Somit kann eine zerstörungsfreie Quantifizierung des Feuchteschadens an schwimmenden Fußbodenaufbauten vorgenommen werden
Leitungswasserschäden nahmen im Jahr 2016 mit rund 2,6 Milliarden Euro den größten Posten bei Gebäudeversicherungen ein. Die Bestimmung und Lokalisierung des Schadensausmaßes ist dabei ein erster wichtiger Schritt, um die erforderlichen Sanierungsarbeiten abschätzen und effizient vornehmen zu können. Hierfür sind Radar und Neutronensonden bereits etablierte Verfahren. Für verlässliche Aussagen zum quantitativen Feuchtegehalt eines Baustoffes werden jedoch zerstörende Sondierungsbohrungen zur Kalibrierung der aufgenommenen Daten benötigt. Dieser hohe zeitliche und finanzielle Aufwand soll zukünftig durch den parallelen Einsatz der genannten Messverfahren verhindert werden. In der durchgeführten Studie wurden Estrichprobekörper auf Zement- und Anhydritbasis mit variablen Dicken und Festigkeiten hergestellt und deren Austrocknung mit Radar und Neutronensonde über einen Zeitraum von 90 Tagen beobachtet. Als Referenzverfahren zur Ermittlung des Feuchteverlaufs dienten die gravimetrische Darr- und chemische Calcium-Carbid-Methode, welche an kleineren Schwesterproben der gleichen Charge angewendet wurden. Kontinuierliche Wägungen der größeren Probekörper gaben hierbei Aufschluss über den durch Austrocknung schwindende Wasseranteil. Aus dem aufgenommen Radardatensatz konnten anschließend markante Signalmerkmale im Zeit- und Frequenzbereich extrahiert und deren Zusammenhang zum Feuchtegehalt der Estrichtypen untersucht werden. Hierbei wurden gängige Methoden aus der Literatur zur Feuchtemessung mit Radar angewandt, wobei die Kombination dieser und das Hinzuziehen der Neutronensonde mittels Datenfusion zu einem höheren Informationsgehalt beiträgt. Somit kann eine zerstörungsfreie Quantifizierung des Feuchteschadens an schwimmenden Fußbodenaufbauten vorgenommen werden
Integration of fibre reinforcement in high-performance cementitious materials has become widely applied in many fields of construction. One of the most investigated advantages of steel fibre reinforced concrete (FRC) is the deceleration of crack growth and hence it’s improved sustainability due to e.g. decrease of permeability of concrete by aggressive substances. Additional benefits are associated with the structural properties of FRC, where fibres can significantly increase the ductility and the tensile strength of concrete. In some applications, such as tunnel linings or industrial slabs, it is even possible to entirely replace the conventional reinforcement, leading to significant logistical and environmental benefits. Fibre reinforcement can, however, have critical disadvantages and even hinder the performance of concrete, since it can induce an anisotropic material behaviour of the mixture if the fibres are not appropriately oriented. For a safe use of FRC in the future, reliable non-destructive methods need to be identified to assess the fibres’ orientation in hardened concrete. In this study, ultrasonic material testing, electrical impedance testing, and X-ray computer tomography have been investigated for this purpose using specially produced samples with biased or random fibre orientations. This paper demonstrates the capabilities of each of these NDT techniques for fibre orientation measurements and draws conclusions based on these results about the most promising areas for future research and development using these techniques.
Zahlreiche Schädigungsprozesse in Baustoffen stehen im engen Zusammenhang mit Feuchteeintrag und Feuchtetransport. Als Beispiel sind die schädigende Alkali-Kieselsäurereaktion (AKR) von Beton sowie Frost-Tauwechsel induzierte Gefügeschäden genannt. Zur zerstörungsfreien, ortsaufgelösten Feuchtemessung eignet sich die im Bereich der Geophysik etablierte, aber im Bauingenieurwesen noch wenig verbreitete, Messmethode der Nuklear Magnetischen Resonanz (NMR). Unter Verwendung der NMR-Relaxometrie sind sowohl Aussagen zum Feuchtegehalt und dessen räumliche Verteilung als auch die Charakterisierung der Porengrößen möglich, die das Transportverhalten eines porösen Materials maßgeblich beeinflussen.
Zur Erfassung der Mikro- und Mesoporen in Baustoffen ist dabei die Auflösung von kurzen T2 Relaxationszeiten unabdingbar. Bisher ist es mit gängigen NMR-Laborgeräten nur begrenzt möglich, solche kurzen T2-Zeiten schichtselektiv zu erfassen. Vor diesem Hintergrund wurde ein speziell für die Messung an mineralischen Baustoffen optimierter NMR-Tomograph beschafft. Dieser ermöglicht sowohl schichtselektive Messungen von Bohrkernen mit Durchmessern von bis zu 70 mm als auch bildgebende Untersuchungen an Proben mit Durchmessern ≤ 40 mm.
Erste Untersuchungsergebnisse an Sandstein, Tuffstein und Beton zeigen die Leistungsfähigkeit des neuen NMR-Tomographen zur Erfassung der porengrößenspezifischen Feuchteverteilung. In diesem Beitrag werden erste Ergebnisse verschiedenartiger Laborversuche exemplarisch dargestellt.
Für Sandsteine mit unterschiedlichsten Porengrößenverteilungen wurden mit dem neuen NMR-Tomographen und einem herkömmlichen NMR-System vergleichbare T2 Zeitenverteilungen ermittelt. Am sehr heterogenen Tuffstein konnten unterschiedlich poröse (und feuchte) Bereiche räumlich aufgelöst werden. Im Beton ließ sich der Feuchtetransport im Zementstein porengrößenspezifisch, schichtselektiv und zeitlich aufgelöst verfolgen.
Die bisher gewonnenen Ergebnisse zeigen das breite Anwendungsspektrum des neuen NMR Tomographen auf und ermöglichen ein besseres Verständnis des Feuchtetransports und der oft damit einhergehenden Schädigungsprozesse in Baustoffen.
Integration of fiber reinforcement in high-performance cementitious materials has become widely applied in many fields of construction. One of the most investigated advantages of steel Fiber reinforced concrete (SFRC) is the deceleration of crack growth and hence its improved sustainability.
Additional benefits are associated with its structural properties, as fibers can significantly increase the ductility and the tensile strength of concrete. In some applications it is even possible to entirely replace the conventional reinforcement, leading to significant logistical and environmental benefits.
Fiber reinforcement can, however, have critical disadvantages and even hinder the Performance of concrete, since it can induce an anisotropic material behavior of the mixture if the fibers are not appropriately oriented. For a safe use of SFRC in the future, reliable non-destructive testing (NDT) methods need to be identified to assess the fibers’ orientation in hardened concrete. In this study,
ultrasonic material testing, electrical impedance testing, and X-ray computed tomography have been investigated for this purpose using specially produced samples with biased or random Fiber orientations. We demonstrate the capabilities of each of these NDT techniques for fiber orientation measurements and draw conclusions based on these results about the most promising areas for future research and development.
Die Alterung bestehender Brückenbauwerke fällt mit dem sich verschlechternden Zustand und zunehmenden Anforderungen an die Bausubstanz zusammen, die eine Folge von steigenden Verkehrszahlen und der Zulassung des Schwerlastverkehrs sind. Der daraus erwachsende Bedarf an Beurteilungen von bestehenden Brücken ist national und international fortwährend groß. Die Grundlage für Nachrechnungen sind die über das System verfügbaren Informationen. Sowohl die rechnerische Zuverlässigkeit eines Tragwerks als auch die Validität der Ergebnisse hängen im Wesentlichen vom Zustand, also von der Qualität und der Relevanz dieser Informationen ab. Die gezielte Messung von gütebewerteten, relevanten Informationen kann die Urteilsfähigkeit des Beurteilenden über die Zuverlässigkeit eines Tragwerks signifikant steigern. Wünschenswert ist die Erhebung derartiger Informationen ohne signifikante Eingriffe in die Bausubstanz.
Das Ziel der vorliegenden Arbeit ist die Entwicklung und Erprobung einer Vorgehensweise für die probabilistische Beurteilung von bestehenden Bauwerken mit zerstörungsfrei gemessenen Daten und einer Methodik zum objektiven Nachweis der Eignung von zerstörungsfreien Messverfahren zur Anwendung im Zuge einer Nachrechnung. Herausgestellt wird die Eignung der im Guide to the Expression of Uncertainty in Measurement (GUM) publizierten Regeln zur Bewertung der Qualität der gemessenen Informationen, die später im statischen Nachweis verwendet werden sollen. Die Anforderungen an die Basisvariablen, d. h. an die Eingangsgrößen im probabilistischen Nachweis, werden aus den Vorschriften zur Zuverlässigkeitsanalyse mit dem probabilistischen Näherungsverfahren FORM, der First Order Reliability Method, abgeleitet. Darauf basiert die Entwicklung der Schnittstelle zwischen der Messtechnik und der Nachrechnung. Im Kern werden die messdatenbasierten Basisvariablen explizit als Zufallsgrößen bei der Zuverlässigkeitsanalyse berücksichtigt. Die entwickelte Vorgehensweise wird am Beispiel von zwei Spannbetonbrücken und vier Basisvariablen erprobt. In die Nachweise der Biege- und der Querkrafttragfähigkeit sowie in einen Nachweis der Dekompression fließen geometrische Messergebnisse ein, die mithilfe von Radar- und Ultraschallmessungen generiert werden. Ein wichtiger Bestandteil ist die Bildung von Modellen zur Auswertung der Messungen und zur Berechnung der Messergebnisse.
Es wird gezeigt, dass die Einbeziehung der zerstörungsfrei generierten Messergebnisse die Unsicherheit in den Berechnungsmodellen reduzieren und den Grad der Annäherung der Modelle
an die Realität steigern kann. Die Messergebnisse sind zuverlässig und vergleichbar. Umfassende Sensitivitätsanalysen geben Aufschluss über sinnvollerweise zu messende Bauwerksparameter, die einen maßgeblichen Einfluss auf die Tragwerkszuverlässigkeit ausüben. Auf diese Weise wird die Relevanz der Informationen ermittelt. Das Potential derartiger Analysen für die gezielte Planung und Beauftragung von Messungen sowie für die bedarfsgerechte Zuschärfung von initial unzureichenden Berechnungsmodellen erscheint groß. Die messdatenbasierten Modelle können darüber hinaus die Robustheit einer Tragwerksanalyse steigern. Die Berücksichtigung von Messergebnissen ist dann besonders nützlich, wenn zur Beurteilung erforderliche Informationen fehlen oder Zweifel an den verfügbaren Informationen aufgekommen sind. Im besten Fall resultiert daraus die Verlängerung von rechnerischen Restnutzungsdauern, die Steigerung der Verfügbarkeit der Infrastruktur, die Optimierung des Ressourcenverbrauchs und insgesamt eine realitätsnahe Bauwerksbewertung.
"Die effiziente Verwendung von Messergebnissen bei der Nachrechnung und von Ergebnissen aus zerstörungsfreien Prüfungen im Speziellen setzt voraus, dass die Relevanz der messbaren Informationen beziffert, die Qualität der gemessenen Information berechnet und die Anforderungen an die Genauigkeit der Inspektionen aus der statischen Berechnung abgeleitet werden können. Der Vergleich der Anforderungen an eine zu messende Information mit der Qualität der gemessenen Information wird in diesem Aufsatz als Validierung eines Messverfahrens aufgefasst. Es wird gezeigt, wie zerstörungsfreie Prüfverfahren für die Nachrechnung validiert werden können. Die Methodik wird anhand einer mit der Ultraschallecho- und Impulsradarmethode untersuchten Spannbetonbrücke demonstriert."
Imaging of results in NDT-CE: Strength and limitations in the use of Radar vs. Ultrasonic Echo
(2022)
Presentation on behalf of the co-author specified in BAM-Publica.
Study on capabilities of volume methods (GPR, Ultrasonic Echo) regarding lateral and depth localisation of reinforcement and tendons in concrete components. Varied boundary conditions: spacing and diameter of both the near surface rebars of the mesh, and the reflectors of interest, as well as component thickness and concrete cover. Please find corresponding references on slide 2.
Increasing requirements on the infrastructure caused by more and heavier traffic coincide with both the aging and the progressive degradation of bridge constructions. These exemplary issues lead to a non-negligible need for reassessments of existing bridges. Compared to the new building design, safety reserves can be used in the evaluation of such existing structures, since uncertainties that may arise during the design, construction and previous Service time are better known or no longer present. Uncertainties can be evaiuated more precisely by measurements. In the meantime, the application of advanced NDT-methods on concrete structures have become so capable, that crucial structure Parameters like certain material properties or geometrical dimensions can be quantified without significant destructive interventions. The measured data can be explicitly incorporated into the probabilistic computation models used for the bridge reassessment in form of random variables. Therewith, a previously insufficient model can be refined to achieve a higher level of approximation. This contribution emphasises two fundamental steps of the measured data based probabilistic reassessment: The sensitivity analyses to identify the cruciai Parameters and the needed accuracy of the related information as well as the comparison with expected uncertainties of non-destructively measured Parameters.
Vortrag über die Berechnung von Messunsicherheiten und die POD-Analyse zur Aufbereitung von ZfP-Ergebnissen für die Zuverlässigkeitsbewertung bestehender Bauwerke.
The non-destructive testing methods available for civil engineering (NDT-CE) enable the measurements of quantitative parameters, which realistically describe the characteristics of existing buildings. In the past, methods for quality evaluation and concepts for validation expanded into NDT-CE to improve the objectivity of measured data. Thereby, a metrological foundation was developed to collect statistically sound and structurally relevant information about the inner construction of structures without destructive interventions. More recently, the demand for recalculations of structural safety was identified. This paper summarizes a basic research study on structural analyses of bridges in combination with NDT. The aim is to use measurement data of nondestructive testing methods as stochastic quantities in static calculations. Therefore, a methodical interface between the guide to the expression of uncertainty in measurement and probabilistic approximation procedures (e.g. FORM) has been proven to be suitable. The motivation is to relate the scientific approach of the structural analysis with real information coming from existing structures and not with those found in the literature. A case study about the probabilistic bending proof of a reinforced concrete bridge with statistically verified data from ultrasonic measurements shows that the measuring results fulfil the requirements concerning precision, trueness, objectivity and reliability.
Approaches to the development of a (GUM-) measurement model for the calculation of measurement uncertainties in the localization of tendons in concrete structures using the ultrasonic echo method including demonstration were presented.
Inhalt der Präsentation:
- Einführung in das Prinzip der Laufzeitmessung
- Vorteile bei der Anwendung von Volumenverfahren an Spannbetonbrücken
- Möglichkeiten zur Beurteilung der Leistungsfähigkeit von ZfP-Verfahren und zur Verwendung der Messergebnisse in probabilistischen Nachweisen von Bestandstragwerken
Fortwährend besteht ein wesentlicher Bedarf an Nachrechnungen von bestehenden Brückenbauwerken. Die Zuverlässigkeit der Berechnungsergebnisse hängt insbesondere von der Anzahl und von der Qualität der einbezogenen Informationen ab. Durch die Anwendung von zerstörungsfreien Prüfmethoden können quantitative Informationen gesammelt werden, die für die Beurteilung der Tragwerke sowohl relevant als auch ausreichend genau sind. Die gemessenen Daten können explizit in probabilistische Berechnungsmodelle für die Nachrechnung einer Brücke einfließen. Dadurch wird das Modell sukzessive an die Realität angenähert — in anderen Worten: "zugeschärft". Die Zuverlässigkeit der Ergebnisse der Nachrechnung steigt.
In diesem Posterbeitrag wird ein entwickeltes Konzept für die Verwendung von Messergebnissen (anstelle von deterministischen Informationen und Annahmen) im statischen Nachweis zusammengefasst. Am Fallbeispiel einer Spannbetonbrücke werden die Vorteile des dargestellten Ansatzes aufgezeigt. Die Messgrößen (hier die Positionen der Längsspannglieder) und die Messstrategien können anhand von Sensitivitätsanalysen definiert und die Anforderungen an die Messergebnisse aus der statischen Berechnung spezifiziert werden. Die Auswirkungen
a) der Messunsicherheit auf die Tragwerkszuverlässigkeit sowie
b) von gegenüber den vor den Messungen verfügbaren Informationen abweichenden Messwerten sind am Beispiel der Lokalisierung der Längsspannglieder durch Ultraschall- und Radarmessungen dargestellt.
In this contribution, an approach is outlined to process non-destructively gath-ered measurement data in a comparable way in order to include the measured information in probabilistic reliability assessments of existing structures. An es-sential part is the calculation of measurement uncertainties. The effect of incor-porating evaluated NDT-results is demonstrated by means of a prestressed con-crete bridge and GPR measurements conducted on this bridge as a case-study. The bridge is assessed regarding SLS Decompression using the NDT-results.
Measuring means knowing. The structural engineer’s Knowledge about structures is vitally important for the assessment of their structural safety. This contribution shows, how non-destructive testing methods can be used to collect valuable Information about existing structures. This value is expressed in this paper by the usability in probabilistic assessments and thus by the reliability of the information. The development of non-destructive testing methods in civil-engineering allows the realistic measurement and visualization of inner constructions of concrete components with a minimum of destructive interventions.
The evaluation of the quality of measurement data is of fundamental importance for quantitative measurements in order to ensure the objectivity of testing and evaluation and to assess the reliability of the knowledge acquired. Both systematic and random deviations must be identified, quantified and taken into account to obtain statistically sound data. The Focus of this contribution is on the methodical path, how displayed measurement data can be processed into reliable knowledge.
It is not about developing assessment methods but about providing
necessary knowledge to increase their operational usability.
The reassessment of bridges is becoming increasingly important. The basic requirement for analyses of structural safety is reliable knowledge about individual structures. This paper introduces the new approach to evaluate the quality of measured data gained from non-destructive testing (NDT) to provide reliable, objective, and relevant information about existing bridges. The purpose is to relate this validated knowledge to probabilistic analyses. Bridging the gap between NDT and numerical reassessments indicates reduced numerical uncertainties and residual service time extensions. This paper deals with an application of this approach using measurement data collected by ultrasonic technique at a prestressed concrete bridge.