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BIA-Brukerstyrt innovasjonsarena

Radar and Ultrasonic Sensor for Inspection of Concrete Structures - Contect

Alternative title: Radar og ultralyd sensor for inspeksjon av betongstrukturer - Contect

Awarded: NOK 15.4 mill.

Project Number:

332233

Project Period:

2022 - 2025

Funding received from:

Location:

Combining radar and ultrasound measurements promises significantly improved tools for inspection of concrete constructions such as roads, bridges, buildings, energy, and transportation networks. A multimodal sensor would benefit from the independent strengths of both technologies for detection and quantification of deterioration, but also offer synergetic features not available with a single sensor. Our primary objective is a multimodal scanner called Contect, which can detect and quantify deterioration in concrete constructions. Contect will have fully integrated Ultra-Wide Band - Impulse Radio (UWB-IR) radar and ultrasonic transducers. The Contect scanner will evaluate signatures based on the two modalities’ attributes to determine the compressional strength, porosity, and water content of the concrete. Contect will address the growing concrete construction and inspection market. The global market for concrete inspection equipment is estimated to be more than USD 1.4 billion by 2027 mainly divided between universal testing equipment and NDT equipment. The project partners are Equanostic AS and SINTEF enabling the project to cover main competences within both radar and ultrasonic domains.

Combining radar and ultrasound measurements promises significantly improved tools for inspection of concrete constructions such as roads, bridges, buildings, energy, and transportation networks. A multimodal sensor would benefit from the independent strengths of both technologies for detection and quantification of deterioration, but also offer synergetic features not available with a single sensor. Our primary objective is a multimodal scanner called Contect, which can detect and quantify deterioration in concrete constructions. Contect will have fully integrated Ultra-Wide Band - Impulse Radio (UWB-IR) radar and ultrasonic transducers. The scanner will evaluate signatures based on the ratio between the two modalities’ attributes to determine the compressional strength, porosity, and water content of the concrete. Contect will address the growing concrete construction and inspection market. The global market for concrete inspection equipment is estimated to be more than USD 1.4 billion by 2027 mainly divided between universal testing equipment and non-destructive testing (NDT) equipment. Important R&D challenges in the project are: - Combining UWB-IR and pulse echo ultrasound to estimate a scatterer's depth and position even when the velocity and attenuation of the signals are unknown. - Development of signal processing procedures, and array processing to distinguish the echo of interest from background clutter. - Estimation of the concrete's compressional strength and the rebars corrosion based on a machine learning approach of the acquired signals. - Develop a sensor arrangement to achieve the best trade-off between sensor dimension and weight, measurement signal quality, and precise synchronization and calibration of data from the two modalities.

Funding scheme:

BIA-Brukerstyrt innovasjonsarena