Analytische Chemie
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- Material moisture (7)
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- Non-destructive testing (6)
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- Fluidics (4)
- Acoustic-flow interaction (2)
- Building materials (2)
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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.
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.
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 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.
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.
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.
When applying Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) to assess the moisture content of building materials, different medium properties, dimensions, interfaces and other unknown influences may require specific strategies to achieve useful results. Hence, we present an overview of the various approaches to carry out moisture measurements with GPR in civil engineering (CE). We especially focus on the applied Signal features such as time, amplitude and frequency features and discuss their limitations. Since the majority of publications rely on one single feature when applying moisture measurements, we also hope to encourage the consideration of approaches that combine different signal features for further developments.
To date, the destructive extraction and analysis of drilling cores is the main possibility to obtain depth information about damaging water ingress in building floors. The time- and costintensive procedure constitutes an additional burden for building insurances that already list piped water damage as their largest item. With its high sensitivity for water, a ground-penetrating radar (GPR) could provide important support to approach this problem in a non-destructive way. In this research, we study the influence of moisture damage on GPR signals at different floor constructions. For this purpose, a modular specimen with interchangeable layers is developed to vary the screed and insulation material, as well as the respective layer thickness. The obtained data set is then used to investigate suitable signal features to classify three scenarios: dry, damaged insulation, and damaged screed. It was found that analyzing statistical distributions of A-scan features inside one B-scan allows for accurate classification on unknown floor constructions. Combining the features with multivariate data analysis and machine learning was the key to achieve satisfying results. The developed method provides a basis for upcoming validations on real damage cases.