Bulavinov ACS State of The Art & Novel Trends in Ultrasonic Concrete Imaging - Short PDF

ACS - ACOUSTIC CONTROL SYSTEMS
State of the Art & Novel Trends in the

Ultrasonic Testing of Concrete Structures
 Acoustic Control Systems – ACS Group 2020 1

Introduction of ACS Group

About us
Acoustic Control Systems – ACS Group –
established in 1991 – is the international
provider of innovative ultrasonic testing
equipment and professional inspection and
engineering services:
• 160 highly professional employees
• All-in-house development and production
Transducers – Electronics – Mechanics –

Software
• Pioneers in industrial ultrasonic tomography

/ 2D-3D imaging

ACS products

Innovation in every product
Pencil-like thickness gauge for express-measurement of wall
thickness values
• Simple adjustment and easy to use
• Small size and weight (can be carried in pocket)
• Four preset ultrasound velocity levels allow the user to
select any one of them quickly
• Required velocity value can be set
• The instrument can work at temperatures from –30 up
to +50˚С
• Built-in LiPol rechargeable battery
• Micro-USB port for charging the rechargeable battery
from PC or mains, when a power adapter is connected

Couplant-free thickness gauge for complex conditions
• World-first EMAT intrument with no permanent magnet
• Couplant-free and sticking-free operation
• Advanced functionality on rough / dirty surfaces
• Throu-paint / coating capability
• High-temperature capability (up to 900ºC)
• A-scan capability

Affordable TMF Phased Array Instrument

INTROSCAN: Couplant-free wireless crawler
for in-service inner-pipe testing of gas
compression stations

• Customer: NIIEFA
• Branch: Atomic energy / fusion reactor
• Inspection task: Automated inspection of objects
with arbitrary shape


State of the art of ultrasonic concrete testing:

physics, application & instrumentation

Ultrasonic Concrete Testing
Inspection tasks
✓ Data collection about the inner structure of the
inspection object a part of it due to lack of
information
✓ Estimation of the current state of the inner
structure in comparison to the documentation
✓ Estimation of the state and level of damage of the
object because of load during exploitation
✓ Detection and evaluation of material flaws appeared
during construction and exploitation

Instrumentation for Ultrasonic Concrete
Testing in Course of the Time
1989

Instrumentation for Ultrasonic Concrete
Testing in Course of the Time
1995

Instrumentation for Ultrasonic
Concrete Testing in Course of the Time
2007

Instrumentation for Ultrasonic
Concrete Testing in Course of the Time
Ultrasonic tomography systems 3D representation of inspection results
In-Situ testing B-Scan image

Chalenges of UT on concrete
 HETEROGENEOUS MATERIAL with strong  Very less methodical / guiding

structural noise documents available
 STRUCTURAL COMPLEXITY of the inspection  “Originality” and “specificity” of
objects (reinforcement, channels etс. Inside) every object of inspection
 LARGE DIMENSIONS of the objects
 Strong influence of operator
 Often the objects are in service – limited professional skills and
accessability
experience

Why Ultrasonics?
 High penetration depth
 Visualization of the inner structure and easiness of result interpretation
 Wide range of versatile measurement / analysis methods (surface pulse velocity,
volume pulse velocity, pulse-echo, UT tomography by SAFT / TFM)
 Adjustability of inspection parameters to the object properties: working frequency
range 20-150 kHz
Physical limitations:
 Strong frequency dependence of sound attenuation
 Less sensitivity to close laid reinforcement (in comparison with GPR)
 Inspection sensitivity and resolution are comparable to the wavelength ( ~ 2 – 25

cm)
 Inspectability can be affected by reinforcement elements
Instrumentation for
Dry Point Contact – DPC transducers for concrete testing
L – longitudinal wave
T – Shear wave

Instrumentation for

 Dry acoustic coupling, no special surface

preparation is required
 Inspection with one-side access to the
object
 Stable acoustic contact even on rough and
uneven surfaces: spring-loaded antenna
array elements allows to work on surfaces
with roughness curvature radius up to 8
mm
 High signal / noise ratio while using
 Acoustic Control Systems – ACS Group 2020
antenna arrays 21
Modern Instrumentation
for Concrete Testing

Modern Instrumentation for
Available equipment categories
 Ultrasonic Pulse Velocity Testers (UPVT)
 Single Channel Flaw Detectors
 Tomography Systems by TFM Imaging (MIRA)

Available equipment for concrete testing
Surface Universal Tomograph Tomograph

Flaw detector
pulse velocity pulse velocity A1020 МIRA-Lite A1040 МIRA
A1220 Monolith
tester tester
UK1401 A1410 Pulsar
Surfer

Ultrasonic Pulse Velocity Tester: Physical Principle
Image: Mahdi Shariati, Nor Hafizah Ramli-Sulong, Mohammad Mehdi Arabnejad K. H., Payam Shafigh and
Hamid Sinaei Department of Civil Engineering, University of Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Compressive strength, MPa
3.000 3.500 4.000 4.500

Sound velocity, m/s

Ultrasonic Pulse Velocity Tester: Functionality

Ultrasonic Pulse Velocity Tester: Data Processing & reporting by App

Surface pulse velocity tester UK1401 SURFER
 Evaluation of propagation time / sound
velocity in material
 Estimation of concrete strength
 Estimation of porosity and fissuring of
concrete
 Estimation of the loading capacity of
concrete piers and columns
 Estimation of the crack depth opened to
the surface
Instrument features ：
 Dry acoustic contact with two built-in
transducers
 Acoustic Control Systems – ACS Group 2020  Small sizes and weight 29
Surface pulse velocity tester UK1401 SURFER
D
Sound velocity V = D / t
t – measured propagation time

Single-channel Ultrasonic Thickness gauges / Flaw detectors
Transmitter Backwall.
pulse echo
position 1
Inspection object
Probe
(cross section)
Position 1
A-scan
Noise
Scanning
direction
Transmitter Backwall.
Material pulse echo
flaw
Position 2
A-scan
Flaw
echo
position 2
Probe
Noise

Single-channel Ultrasonic Thickness gauges / Flaw detectors
Pulse-echo testing: from thickness measurement up to 3D-imaging by SAFT

„Low-Cost“ tomography system on the base of A1220 MONOLITH
Accurate small-step data acquisition by A1220 Monolith provides SAFT-
suitable ultrasonic data for 3D volume reconstruction
Inspection object

A1040 MIRA – High-End tomography system
 Real-time TFM image reconstruction
 Visualization of reinforcement and material flaws
 Long-range inspection / deep penetration

A11 A12 …A1N

Data acquisition
A21 A22 …A2N
A31 …A3N
Transducer array
AN1 …ANN 11 12 13 1N
1 2 3 N
21 22 23 2N
31 32 33 3N
Defect N1 N2 N3 NN
Inspection object
Information matrix

Transducer array
Flaw 4
Flaw 1
Flaw 3
Flaw 2
Flaw 5 Flaw 6
15x15
16x16
14x14
11x11
9x9
13x13
10x10
12x12
4x4
5x5
3x3
2x26x6
7x7
1x1
8x8

Data acquisition with the TFM tomography system A1040 MIRA
Small reflector directivity
≈λ
Instrumentation for Ultrasonic Concrete Testing
Data acquisition with the TFM system A1040 MIRA

Data acquisition with the TFM system A1040 MIRA



 Testing is performed by step-by-step scanning along a drawn grid with
equidistand measurement positions
 After data collection in “grid-mode” the 3D reconstruction of inspected area is
conducted by external PC
 Depending on concrete grain size and applicable working frequency following
discontinuities can be detected:
 Cylindrical reflector up to  12 mm
 Spherical reflector up to  20 mm

Ultrasonic tomography by DFA in concrete
3D Visualization of big inspection areas

A1020 MIRA lite – affordable tomography system

A1020 MIRA lite – affordable tomography system

OEM-Modules for scientific & industrial system engineering

Application of UT on concrete
structures

Application of UT on concrete structures
Thickness measurement by one-side access

Localization of reinforcement rebars and other elements (tendon
ducts, anchors, hollow pipes, cables), also beyond of rebar layers

Detection of material voids, estimation of their position

and size in 3D: cavities, inclusions, honeycombs, cracks,

Assessment of carbon electrodes

Assessment of fireproof stones

Detection of grouting defects in tendon ducts and grouting couplers

Transducer array
Concrete
inspection
object
Coupler
Elementary
wavelets
Reconstruction
model of the
inspection object
Voxel

Grouted: High Acoustic Density Empty: Low Acoustic Density
RoI
RoI
marker
marker

Advanced Applications
Inspection of tunnel tubings

Inspection of extremely thick-walled components (nuclear
waste storages)
Scalable wireless data acquisition module

Coupling surface 1st backwall echo 2nd backwall echo

Novel Trends in the Ultrasonic Imaging of

Concrete Structures

Novel Trends in the Ultrasonic
Imaging of Concrete Structures
Future trends
 Using the matrix apertures / True-3D tomographic imaging
 Improved crack sizing functionality
 Implementation of the application software on tablet PCs
 Advanced data processing techniques for improving informational

content of UT data
A1040 MIRA Neo –
New UT Tomography Platform
 A-DPC Active-DPC
transducers
 True-3D Tomography in each

position of the instrument
 Open-Crack Sizing
Functionality
 Modular design
 Big Data Visualization in

INTROVIEW 3D-Visualization
and Analysis Software

Summary and outlook

 Modern instruments for concrete testing offer 3D tomographic imaging for quality
assessment of the civil infrastructure
 Advanced signal processing and image reconstruction techniques (3D-TFM)

improve the informational content of the UT on concrete
 Ultrasonic testing of concrete infrastructure by means of DPC transducer arrays

reveals an emerging NDT market in civil engineering

Thank you for your attention!

www.acs-international.com
www.testindo.co.id

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ACS - ACOUSTIC CONTROL SYSTEMS

State of the Art & Novel Trends in the

 Acoustic Control Systems – ACS Group 2020 1

Introduction of ACS Group

 Acoustic Control Systems – ACS Group 2020 2

• 160 highly professional employees

• All-in-house development and production

Transducers – Electronics – Mechanics –

• Pioneers in industrial ultrasonic tomography

 Acoustic Control Systems – ACS Group 2020 3

 Acoustic Control Systems – ACS Group 2020 4

 Acoustic Control Systems – ACS Group 2020 5

 Acoustic Control Systems – ACS Group 2020 6

 Acoustic Control Systems – ACS Group 2020 7

 Acoustic Control Systems – ACS Group 2020 8

 Acoustic Control Systems – ACS Group 2020 9

 Acoustic Control Systems – ACS Group 2020 10

State of the art of ultrasonic concrete testing:

 Acoustic Control Systems – ACS Group 2020 11

 Acoustic Control Systems – ACS Group 2020 12

 Acoustic Control Systems – ACS Group 2020 13

 Acoustic Control Systems – ACS Group 2020 14

 Acoustic Control Systems – ACS Group 2020 15

In-Situ testing B-Scan image

 Acoustic Control Systems – ACS Group 2020 16

 HETEROGENEOUS MATERIAL with strong  Very less methodical / guiding

 Acoustic Control Systems – ACS Group 2020 17

 Inspection sensitivity and resolution are comparable to the wavelength ( ~ 2 – 25

 Acoustic Control Systems – ACS Group 2020 19

 Acoustic Control Systems – ACS Group 2020 20

 Dry acoustic coupling, no special surface

 Acoustic Control Systems – ACS Group 2020 22

 Ultrasonic Pulse Velocity Testers (UPVT)

 Single Channel Flaw Detectors

 Tomography Systems by TFM Imaging (MIRA)

 Acoustic Control Systems – ACS Group 2020 23

Surface Universal Tomograph Tomograph

 Acoustic Control Systems – ACS Group 2020 24

 Acoustic Control Systems – ACS Group 2020 25

Compressive strength, MPa

3.000 3.500 4.000 4.500

 Acoustic Control Systems – ACS Group 2020 26

 Acoustic Control Systems – ACS Group 2020 27

 Acoustic Control Systems – ACS Group 2020 28

 Acoustic Control Systems – ACS Group 2020 30

 Acoustic Control Systems – ACS Group 2020 31

Pulse-echo testing: from thickness measurement up to 3D-imaging by SAFT

 Acoustic Control Systems – ACS Group 2020 33

 Acoustic Control Systems – ACS Group 2020 34

A11 A12 …A1N

 Acoustic Control Systems – ACS Group 2020 35

 Acoustic Control Systems – ACS Group 2020 36

Small reflector directivity

Data acquisition with the TFM system A1040 MIRA

 Acoustic Control Systems – ACS Group 2020 38

 Acoustic Control Systems – ACS Group 2020 39

A1040 MIRA – High-End tomography system

 Acoustic Control Systems – ACS Group 2020 40

A1040 MIRA – High-End tomography system

 Acoustic Control Systems – ACS Group 2020 41

 Acoustic Control Systems – ACS Group 2020 42

A1020 MIRA lite – affordable tomography system

 Acoustic Control Systems – ACS Group 2020 43