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NDTnet - July 1997, Vol.2 No.07

A NOVEL TECHNIQUE FOR ADVANCED ULTRASONIC TESTING OF

CONCRETE BY USING SIGNAL CONDITIONING METHODS AND A
SCANNING LASER VIBROMETER
by B. Koehler, G. Hentges, W. Mueller *

ABSTRACT

This paper deals with an innovative technique, which improves the pulse echo testing of concrete by using
1. specially designed ultrasonic probes
2. pulse compression technique
3. ultrasonic wave detection by laser doppler interferometer
4. random speckle modulation
5. space time signal processing methods
The pulse echo technique is carried out by sending frequency modulated chirp signals and performing a cross correlation
between the received and the transmitted signal. In combination with the application of recently available ultrasonic
concrete probes as transmitter, this leads to an improvement of the signal to noise ratio. A laser doppler interferometer,
equipped with a random speckle modulator, is used as detector of the ultrasound. Finally, the data sets can be processed with
various methods, involving the time signals of several space points. Examples are the space averaging and the synthetic
aperture focussing technique (SAFT).
The advantage of the suggested technique is demonstrated by practical measurements. The improvement compared to
standard laser interferometric measurements will increase the feasibility of laser interferometric detection for
non-destructive testing in civil engineering.

Table of contents
INTRODUCTION
SIGNALS WITH A HIGH TIME-BANDWIDTH PRODUCT
LASER VIBROMETER IMPROVED BY SPECKLE MODULATION
PRACTICAL REALISATION AND RESULTS
CONCLUSION
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
REFERENCES

INTRODUCTION

The difficulties of non destructive testing of concrete by ultrasonic methods result from the strong signal attenuation, caused
mainly by scattering at the inhomogeneities of concrete. Besides decreasing the transmitted ultrasonic signal, it leads to
strong coherent noise. This noise can mask even large backwall echoes totally. Scattering diminishes for decreasing
frequencies. Therefore, rather low frequencies in the range of about 100 kHz must de used.
There has been some progress in resent time. Highly efficient transducers has been developed and are available now. Pulse-
compression is known to improve the signal to noise ratio (2) in situations with a high insertion loss. It has been applied to
ultrasonic testing of concrete successfully (7).
It is well known from ultrasonic testing in other fields, that space averaging techniques suppress the coherent
back-scattering noise effectively (8). For applying such methods, signals from a large number of measurement points are
necessary. They can be obtained in a convenient way by using laser interferometric detection. In (3), the interferometric
detection is performed in a 2D scanning aperture and the measured data are reconstructed by the 3D-SAFT algorithm (4)
involving itself spatial averaging.
Till now the main problem of laser interferometry has been the insufficient sensitivity, resulting in a low signal to noise
(S/N) ratio . This is a special problem in an automatic scanning mode, because no fine focussing can be performed, resulting
in large incoherent (electronic) noise of the interferometer. Thus, improvement of the signal to noise ratio is crucial for
application of laser interferometric detection and space averaging techniques. We improve the S/N ratio by several methods.
On the one hand we increase the signal by applying the very efficient probes mentioned above as transmitter and including
the pulse compression technique in our system and on the other hand we reduce the laser vibrometer noise by
implementation a random speckle modulation technique (5). By this method we get signals of tolerable incoherent noise
appropriate for signal processing to suppress the additional coherent scattering noise.

SIGNALS WITH A HIGH TIME-BANDWIDTH PRODUCT

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The influence of attenuation can be reduced by increasing the signal energy transmitted into the system. A common way is,
to increase the amplitude of the ultrasonic pulse. This makes high demands on the used electronic amplifier and ultrasonic
transducer. Furthermore, human safety demands should be borne in mind by working with signal amplitudes not exceeding
thousand Volts. The alternative is, to use signals with a high time bandwidth product. All those signals with an
auto-correlation function close to the delta pulse are suitable. Applying a matched filter for such a signal the auto
correlation function of the transmitted signal results, delayed for signal runtime in specimen. Such a filter is called
correlation- or pulse-compression filter (1). Suitable signals for use with pulse compression techniques are frequency-
modulated-signals (so called fm-chirps), pseudo-stochastic signals, which are m-sequences or Barker-codes, or white noise.
In the suggested method fm-chirp signals are used for transmission. The matched filter is applied by the cross-correlation
between the received and the transmitted signal.
The whole energy of the long duration waveform will be compressed in a very short pulse. The amplitude gain (AG) is
expressed by
AG = ½ time bandwidth (2). That means, to obtain the same amplitude difference between signal and noise compared to a
corresponding pulse excitation, the amplitude of the transmitted chirp signal can be reduced by the factor AG. The pulse
width after correlation becomes smaller by increasing the time-bandwidth product (2).
In figure 1 the common pulse excitation technique is compared with the pulse
compression technique. For convenience a simple simulation is shown. The system
consisting of a transmitting probe, the propagation medium (concrete) and the receiving
probe is represented by a delay of 250 µs, a damping of 50 dB and addition of 0.25 mV
(rms) noise. The transmitted chirp has a bandwidth of 400 kHz and a length of 250 µs.
This yields an amplitude gain of AG = 7. In accordance with that a chirp with an
amplitude of only 70 V leads to the same signal to noise ratio after correlation as the pulse
with amplitude AG * 70Volts ~ 500Volts.

Chirp-signals are best suitable for ultrasonic testing in concrete. They can be generated
easily by arbitrary waveform generators. The frequency-spectrum of the chirp can be
Fig. 1. principle of the pulse
adapted to the transfer function of the system (figure 2). Consequently, a maximum of compression technique
ultrasonic energy is brought into the system .

Fig. 2. linear frequency-modulated chirp signal x(t) and its frequency spectrum X(f)

Broadband transducers are required for chirp signals. The sensitivity of piezoelectric sensors is much lower for broadband
signals than for narrowband signals. So the advantage of piezoelectric sensors is diminished in this case. We used an
alternative broadband-sensor: the laser interferometer.

LASER VIBROMETER IMPROVED BY SPECKLE MODULATION

The main advantage of optical detection by laser interferometry is the ability of

working without contact to the specimen. Thus, laser can be used on rough or
awkward shaped surfaces or on areas, which are difficult to reach (bridges etc.). This
frequently occurs in civil engineering. Scanning areas on the surface of concrete with a
laser interferometric sensor might be an effective method for non-destructive
evaluation (NDE). On the other hand laser interferometry has not yet become a
practicable tool in NDE, due to the fact that its sensitivity is insufficient in most
practical applications. The signal to noise ratio in manufacturers specification cannot Fig. 3. scheme of an ultrasonic laser
be maintained on ordinary scattering surfaces. The surface of concrete is rough and the interferometric measurement including
random speckle modulation
coherence of laser light will result in interference speckles at random distribution.
When optimising the measurement only for one single point on the surface, it is
possible to adjust the laser by changing the focus, so that the photo-detector is covered
by a bright speckle. In scanning mode normally the photo-detector is partially covered
by random distributed bright speckles. Thus, the effective sensitivity inherently
fluctuates. Although the absolute sensitivity of laser interferometer remains the same,
its noise level increases significantly, when dark speckle are encountered. This adverse
effect can be eliminated almost completely by the random speckle modulation
technique suggested in (5). The idea is very simple. Changing the focus by a small
amount moves the speckle pattern in an unpredictable way. Doing this slowly enough Fig. 4. principle of the random speckle
modulation; when a bright speckle

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and observing the interferometer signal amplitude, the ultrasonic measurement can be
taken, when the interferometer noise is low. This will be repeated at each measurement
point.

We modified a Polytec heterodyne scanning laser vibrometer PSV 100. Instead of

changing the focus as described in (5), we let the scanning mirrors vibrate with small occurs, it triggers a measurement (lower
amplitudes. The deflection angle is smaller then 0.04°. That is a deflection of less than trace), the noise in the signal channel is
0.7 mm at a distance of 1 m between laser vibrometer and surface. It can be assured, low for this time interval (upper trace)
that a bright speckle falls on the photodiode for approximately 1 ms by a modulation-
frequency of about 50 Hz. This is sufficient to trigger an ultrasonic transmitter and
detect the response before the bright speckle disappears. Figure 4 shows selected
signals of a measurement. It can be seen, that for bright speckles (large signal
amplitude) the noise is low. In the example shown there is enough time to trigger two
measurements. Fig. 5. laser detected ultrasonic line-scan,
left without, right with random speckle
The improvement by using the random speckle modulation is shown in figure 5. We modulation
carried out a line-scan (ultrasonic B-scan) over a specimen by moving the laser beam
in a range of 50 mm. An ultrasonic transducer is used to generate the pulse having a
centre frequency of 100 kHz. Without random speckle modulation some of the
A-scans are very noisy, while others gave a good signal. The random speckle
modulation increases the average signal to noise ratio by 3 to 5.

PRACTICAL REALISATION AND RESULTS

The experimental setup is shown in figure 6. It consists of a personal

computer, an arbitrary waveform generator followed by a power amplifier,
an ultrasonic transducer (Krautkraemer G0,2-R1) and a Polytec laser
interferometer with the developed random speckle modulator. The PC
controls the process via IEEE 488.2 and performs the cross correlation and
data storage.
The arbitrary waveform generator provides the chirp signal. The waveform
can be easily varied for different applications by PC-controlling the
generator. The maximum output voltage of the gated power amplifier is
400 Vpp with a signal period of maximum 500 µs and repetition rates
lower than 50 Hz. That is quite enough for most applications. Fig. 6. scheme of the realised measurement system

For digitising the received data we use an oscilloscope with a signal

averaging option. The sampled data can be read via IEEE- connection into
the PC, where the correlation is carried out off -line.
The scan angle of the laser vibrometer is ( 20° in each direction. The
theoretical number of points is 4096 in each direction, this corresponds to
1.6 million points. But it takes approximately 1 to 5 seconds measure time
for each point depending on the number of averaged signals. Currently,
scan areas up to 100 x 100 points are practicable, which takes less than 3
hours data aquisition.
Our arrangement is merely an easy test by combining standard devices.
The speed can be considerable increased by using fast DSP-boards for
digitising and calculating the correlation.
In order to test our method we scanned an area of a concrete specimen,
which includes some defined voids in various depths. The test specimen
(2000x1500x700mm) has a maximum aggregate size of 16 mm.
Fig. 7. concrete specimen; the duct, some artificial
Figure 7 shows the plan of the specimen and the scanned area together defects, the measurement fields and the positions of the
with the transducer positions. The scanned area was 500x300mm with a ultrasonic probes are indicated; the thickness of the
raster size of 5 mm. The time duration of the transmitted chirp signal with plate is 700 mm
a frequency range of 30 kHz to 150 kHz was about 500 µs. Five signals
were averaged at each point. The measurement took approximately 1.5 s
per point.
By looking at the received data (see selected single A-scan in figure 8a) the Rayleigh wave signal is very strong. This is a
special problem of any point sensor and can be reduced by using linear or square aperture. A simple averaging over a line
with 100 points is applied in figure 8b. Now the Rayleigh wave indication is suppressed together with the coherent
scattering noise. Thus, the backwall echo appears clearly now.

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Fig. 8. left: a single A-scan from the data set of the lower scan area, the Raleigh wave (peak at 170 mm) is very dominant, whereas backwall is
invisible;
right: averaging over a linear aperture with 100 supporting points, the backwall appears clearly

In figures 9 and 10 the results of reconstruction by means of

3D-SAFT are shown. The backwall can be identified in both images
without doubt. Figure 9 represents the results of the lower part of
the specimen (figure 7). The voids in the depth of 450 mm and 540
mm are clearly recognisable. The backwall exists in the
reconstructed data, but its visibility is suppressed in this image to Fig. 9. 3D-SAFT reconstruction of measured
show detected voids by drawing iso-lines in suitable amplitude. In a data set, left: 2D-projections, right:
depth of 450 mm is a void, filled with a rigid foam quader of 3D-visualisation, in the right figure backwall is
made invisible for presentation.
50x50x50 mm3. The other void is a plastic-tube with a length of 50
mm and a diameter of 50 mm filled with gravel.

Figure 10 illustrates another measurement, now in the upper scan

area of the test specimen (figure 7). A mortar filled duct in a depth
of 250 mm with a gravel filled void behind (350 mm) having a
lateral size of 200 mm could be located. The reconstructed backwall Fig.10. 3D-SAFT reconstruction of data set
seems to have a gap. This can be easy interpreted as a shadowed from upper scan area. left: 2D-projections, right:
3D-visualisation In the depth of 250 mm appears
region because of the duct. Additional measurements involving the duct and behind of them in 350 mm a gravel
different positions of the transmitting probe may clarify this effect void.
further.

CONCLUSION

The first results demonstrate the efficiency of ultrasonic testing with laser interferometric detection. In co-operation with
pulse compression and random speckle modulation the signal to noise ratio can be reduced so that laser interferometric
detection becomes practicable. The technique has to be developed to increase the processing speed. The described technique
may help to improve the acceptance for ultrasonic methods in civil engineering. The 3D-SAFT reconstruction is able to
increase the signal to noise ratio further and leads to a 3D-image of reflector distributions inside the specimen.
Furthermore, the presented technique can be used as an advanced tool for experimental verification of modelling results
concerning the propagation of ultrasonic waves in concrete (6). This is subject of current investigations.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The results described in this paper are part of the work supported by the "Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft" in the grant
No Ko 1386/1-1, which is grateful acknowledged. The authors would also like to thank the "Bundesanstalt für
Straßenwesen" for giving the opportunity to use the concrete specimen and for their support of our measurements.

REFERENCES
1. Lüke, H. D. , Signal-Übertragung, Grundlagen der digitalen und analogen Nachrichtenübertragungssysteme, Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg 1992
2. Pollakowski, M., Ein Beitrag zur Anwendung der Pulskompressionstechnik in der zerstörungsfreien Werkstoffprüfung mit Ultraschall, thesis,
published by Shaker, Aachen 1993
3. Krause, M. et al., Comparison of Pulse Echo Methods for Testing Concrete, International Symposium Non-Destructive Testing in Civil
Engeneering Proceedings Vol.1 Sept 26-28, 1995, Berlin, Gemany
4. Schmitz, V., Müller,W., Evaluation and Interpretation of SAFT Images, to be published in Acoustical Imaging, Vol. 23,
5. Nagy P. B., Blaho G., Random Speckle Modulation Technique for Laser Interferometry, Journal of Non-Destructive Evaluation Vol. 11 No. 1,
1992
6. Schubert, F., Koehler, B., Numerical Modelling of Ultrasonic Attenuation and Dispersion in Concrete, the Effect of Aggregates and Porosity
NDT in Civil Engeneering Conference, April 8-11, 1997, Liverpool
7. Kroggel, O. et al., Novel Ultrasound System to Detect Voids in Posttensioned Bridges 6th Intern. Conference on Structural Faults and Repair,
London July 1995, Proceedings

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8. Bilgutay, N.M. et al. , Theoretical Analysis and Performance of the Minimization Algorithm in NDT Applications , World Conf. NDT,
Proceedings , Las Vegas , 1985

Authors

Bernd Köhler*, G. Hentges*, W. Mueller

Fraunhofer Institute
for Non-Destructive Testing (IZFP)*, IZFP
Branch Lab Dresden
Krueger-Strasse 22
01326 Dresden Germany
email: [email protected]
Homepage http://mm.fhg.de/depts/izfp-e.html

Paper presented at the Conference: NDT in Civil Engineering ´97, Proc. pp 123-134, .
See also the Report about the confernce.

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