Herbert Wiggenhauser, Dr., Dipl.-Phys.

Physicist, since 1989 at BAM (Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing) responsible for the development and application of non-destructive testing methods for civil engineering applications. Since 1999 head of division, a research unit of appr. 30-40 persons, incl PhD students and technicians.

Research concentrates on the development and improvement of methods for practical applications on structures, especially bridges. Methods include Ultrasonics, impact-echo, ground penetrating radar, thermography, geophysical methods, laser induced breakdown spectroscopy end others. Recently, automation and combination of ndt-methods including data-fusion has been in the focus of the research.

A number of research projects, national and international, have been carried out with partners from Germany and Europe.

Dr Wiggenhauser is chairman of the national DGZfP TC NDT in Civil Engineering, member of TRB TC AFF40 and AFF 40(1) and DIN committees.

He has been organizing international symposia NDT in Civil Engineering 1995 and 2003 and national conferences on Building Diagnostics and Moisture Measurements.

Speaker Affiliation: BAM-Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing, Berlin, Germany

Dr.-Ing.Alexander Taffe

Dr Taffe is based in BAM (Federal Institute for Material Research and Testing), since 2002 in division VIII.2 „Non-Destructive Damage Assessment and Environmental Measurement Methods“. Before that he was working as a consultant engineer for concrete repair. Since 2007 he is head of working group “Combination and automatisation of non-destructive testing of buildings”.

Currently he works in the field of the development of automated data collection for on-site use and the imaging of the results.

In January 2008 he finished his PhD-work about validation of NDT-methods.

In the past he was responsible for several practical applications of NDT-applications developed from BAM, e.g. on-site scanning systems, at different bridges. In the education of personnel for bridge testing according to German Standard DIN 1076 he is working since 2004 as a course instructor. Additionally he gives lessons for master students in civil-engineering at the Technical University of Berlin and University of Applied Sciences in Potsdam.

Presentation Title:

NDT in Civil Engineering: Research, Application, Validation and Training

NDT in Civil Engineering (NDT-CE) is an evolving area with many challenges. Originating from research, there are examples for successful development of new devices for practical applications. Among others, the array technique has entered the development of low frequency ultrasonic scanners and powerful radar systems.  Automation has lead to a new quality of NDE on structures.

The proof of the capabilities of the new and old systems, NDT-CE systems are undergoing validation processes which are customized to the specific needs for quality control during construction or measurement tasks such as rebar localization.

Training of personnel becomes more important with NDT-CE systems being used for more advanced tasks. In Germany, within the framework of bridge inspection, the need for special NDE tasks may be identified. Then, only qualified providers may be allowed to carry out such investigations. Training in NDT_CE will be integrated into the bridge inspector training program.