ENDSUM: Non Destructive Assessment of Structures and Materials

The aim of the ENDSUM project is to develop high performance characterisation and diagnostic methods less invasive than current tools, that do not destroy the inspected materials and are capable of replacing methods based on radioactive sources with new technological developments for infrastructure managers and engineering firms.

Sites: Rouen, Angers, Strasbourg; 22 people involved, including 7 permanent researchers.

Challenges for society

Management of built heritage assets and infrastructures, non-destructive testing for diagnostic, durability

Management of built heritage assets and infrastructures represents a major challenge as part of sustainable development and improving regions’ resilience, and also in a context of limited public expenditure. In order to lengthen the operating life of buildings and infrastructures while guaranteeing optimum performance and safety it is necessary to put in place targeted and effective levels of maintenance, servicing and repair. This maintenance requires regular interventions, which today often only produce «occasional» results, are expensive and partially destroy the structures and materials involved. The objective is therefore to provide managers and engineering firms with tools and techniques for diagnostic and non-destructive testing. If possible they should deliver high performance at a low cost, and be capable of improving the efficiency of inspection and monitoring procedures.

Safety and protection of buried networks

Major changes have been introduced relating to buried networks since the Grenelle 2 law of 2010. Some regulatory modifications require local authorities to fulfil new obligations, within tight time frames. For instance this is the case for deployment of PCRS, a system which aims to prevent damage being caused to networks and accidents during repair work. To do so it provides a map of all buried pipes. The use of high performance non destructive methods to map buried networks could make a useful contribution to this policy.

Prevention of gravitational risks

Prevention of gravitational risks is also an important issue, whether in natural or man-made contexts, especially for areas which may suddenly change and threaten infrastructures and lives. Danger can manifest itself in many different forms, such as imminent rupture of dykes, undermined or karstic terrain, landslides or collapses due to cliff erosion. The need for intervention is particularly acute in a situation of rapid change, therefore urgency. In these cases innovative and rapid means of investigation are necessary. In this type of situation, non-destructive assessment using terrestrial and aerial measurements can be a useful response.

ENDSUM

 

Scientific approach

To characterise the physical and geometric parameters of environments.

Area 1 concerns characterisation of physical and geometric parameters of environments. The aim is to determine the physical surface properties of structures and materials, and their potential links to the internal condition of the environments and their evolution. This area is divided into 3 sub-areas: Detailed knowledge of the geometry of the studied objects required in order to study the physical phenomena and to model and interpret the measurements. This subject will make it possible to link up the physical phenomena at the different scales of observation, in order to obtain more precise interpretations. Study of the properties of luminance (reflectance and temperature of materials) in order to improve interpretation of thermal images. Study of complex permittivity to characterise physical and hydric gradients within the environments, the defects and the densities.

Develop and transfer methods for modelling, inversion and data processing.

Area 2 aims to develop and transfer methods for modelling, inversion and data processing in order to characterise physical parameters that can be interpreted by specialists in the discipline (according to the chain: physical methods → mesurand → required parameter).

This area is divided into 3 sub-areas:

Modelling of environments
The objective will be to model the properties of structures, and distinguish the following properties:

  • Geometric (photogrammetric techniques, precision and resolution at different scales);
  • Thermo-hydric for study of flows in porous environments (cavities, karst, dyke leaks…);
  • Dielectric in heterogeneous and dispersive civil engineering environments (concrete) and construction environments (tuffeau limestone).

Innovative methods
In terms of reconstruction (inversion), the team will work to develop electro-magnetic methods to replace nuclear methods and inversion methods associated with diffuse field propagation (wave shape) and wave guide propagation (modal).

Automation of detection
The purpose of analysing collected or reconstructed images and signals is to allow automated detection and localisation of objects and defects within the studied environments or on their surface. To achieve this, we will make use of statistical signal and image processing methods and shape recognition by learning.

Develop non-destructive assessment tools

Area 3 aims to develop non-destructive assessment tools, that if possible will deliver high performance levels, to contribute to diagnosis of structures and materials. Innovative methodologies and services will be proposed to managers and all the economic players and decision-makers.

Expected results

Area 1 - Characterise the physical and geometric parameters of environments

  • Time-dependent tracking models for characterisation of deformation;
  • Modelling tool for localisation of leaks in pipe networks;
  • Electro-magnetic wave diffraction model as a function of roughness;
  • Characterisation of photometric properties of road surfaces;
  • Models linking temperature, properties of terrains and their stability;
  • Characterisation of the water content of materials using thermal methods and radar methods;
  • Characterisation of hydric defects and gradients based on dielectric characteristics of materials – Search for cracking and leaks.

Area 2 - Develop and transfer methods for modelling, inversion and data processing

  • Photogrammetric processing chain for 3D reconstruction of linear objects;
  • Tools for interpretation of cliff erosion;
  • Tools for thermo-hydric quantification in partially saturated environments;
  • Hybrid electro-magnetic models in complex environments for estimation of physical gradients (water content and density);
  • Electro-magnetic tomography to determine the density of materials in order to replace methods using radioactive sources;
  • Hybrid inversion methods (wave shape and wave guide versus hydrodynamic models) for high resolution estimation of physical and hydric gradients;
  • High performance methods for automatic detection of surface defects;
  • Methods for detecting and locating detachments of interfaces;
  • Use of GB-SAR to characterise materials (surface and shallow depth).

Area 3 - Develop non-destructive assessment tools

  • An instrumented platform consisting of a vehicle and a frequency jump radar system;
  • Several automated benches (i) 3D hydric mapping of coverings of engineering structures (ii) non-destructive core sampling of road pavements and (iii) replacement of gamma-densimetric methods;
  • High performance road tunnel inspection system;
  • Development of a drone demonstrator comprising visible, thermal, near infra-red and LiDar sensors;
  • Construction of two prototype monitoring systems to track the velocities of corrosion of rebars and to estimate the chloride gradients in maritime structure coating concretes;
  • Construction of a prototype for a radar measurement system providing a high precision estimate of the rebar diameters and the coating thicknesses in hydraulic concrete structures.
Partnership

Public: Ifsttar, BRGM, VNF, CETU) and within the framework of contracts with IGN, LRMH, ANDRA.

Academic: Universities of Angers, Caen (LETG), Nantes (IETR), Rennes (IETR), Le Mans (Acoustics Lab.), Rouen (M2C, GPM/ERCAP, Insa LMI), Strasbourg (UMR iCube), UPMC (UMR Metis), Toulouse (GET, UMR CESBIO), Reunion Island, IPG Paris, GIS non-destructive testing and assessment in the Pays de la Loire region (ECND-PdL), ESEO Angers, ESIGELEC Rouen, Géosciences La Réunion.

International: exchanges with Leuven Catholic University, LIU (Lebanese International University), Polytechnic University of Hong Kong, University of Rome, University of Jülich (Aachen, Germany),

  • Co-supervision of scientific work (theses and post-doctoral) are under way with: SCUT (South China University of Technology, China), ISSI (International Space Science Institute) Bern.
  • The European project MEDSUV involves strong links with many partners including INGV (Italian geophysics and volcanology institute).
  • Under way INGEMMET and IGP (Peru) and South China University of Technology, Hong-Kong Polytechnic University.
Latest publications
Theses under way

Ayoub SAYDY (2021-2024)
Geophysics Models for the Geotechnical characterization of Sols (Modèles Géophysiques pour la Caractérisation Géotechnique des Sols)
Thesis supervisors: Fayçal REJIBA (M2C CNRS). Co-supervisors: Cyrille FAUCHARD (CEREMA/ENDSUM)

Théau Cousin (2021-2024)
Numerical simulation and experimentation of electromagnetic wave diffraction in civil engineering materials (Simulation numérique et expérimentation de la diffraction d’ondes électromagnétiques dans les matériaux du génie civil)
Thesis supervisors: Cyrille Fauchard (CEREMA/ENDSUM) and Christian Gout (Insa de Rouen). Co-supervisor: Antoine Tonnoir (Insa de Rouen)

Grégory ANDEOLI (2020-2024)
Évaluation et classification des caractéristiques de couche d'accrochage dans les chaussées par technique radar -Traitement hybride par intelligence artificielle / Full waveform inversion
Thesis supervisor: Amine IHAMOUTEN (UGE/MAST/LAMES) . Co-supervisors: Cyrille FAUCHARD (CEREMA/ENDSUM), Xavier DEROBERT (UGE/GERS/GeoEND)

Viktoriia BULIUK (2020-2024)
Full Wave-Form inversion of radar signals for water mapping of concrete structures under a waterproofing screed. Automatic damage detection ( Inversion des formes d’onde radar pour la cartographie hydrique des ouvrages en béton sous chape d'étanchéité – Détection automatisée des défauts)
Thesis supervisor: Amine IHAMOUTEN (UGE/MAST/LAMES). Co-supervisors: Christophe HEINKELE (Cerema/ENDSUM), Xavier DEROBERT (UGE/GERS/GeoEND)

Rakeeb Mohamed JAUFER (2019 – 2022)

Classification et localisation des réseaux enterrés par Radar à sauts de fréquence 3D multi-antennes- CARRERA 3D
Thesis supervisor: Amine IHAMOUTEN (UGE/MAST/LAMES), Xavier DEROBERT (UGE/GERS/GeoEND). Co-supervisors: Yann GOYAT (Logiraod)

Sima KADKHODAZADEH (2019-2022)
Structural health monitoring techniques for reinforced concrete using Maxwell euations, inversion and signal processing method for magnetic signal (Contrôle de santé des structures en béton armé à partir des équations de Maxwell : inversion et traitement des signaux magnetiques)
Thesis supervisor: Amine IHAMOUTEN (UGE/MAST/LAMES), Xavier DEROBERT (UGE/GERS/GeoEND). Co-supervisors: David SOURIOU (Cerema/ENDSUM)

Bachir TCHANA-TANKEU (2019-2022)
High resolution techniques for time delay and effective Q factor estimations Thesis supervisor: Yide WANG (Univ. Nantes).
Co-supervisors: Vincent BALTAZART (UGE/Cosys), David Guilbert (Cerema/ENDSUM)

Guillaume Décor (2018-2021)
Pattern recognition for the visual inspection of tunnels (Reconnaissance des formes pour l'inspection visuelle des tunnels)
Co-directors : Fabrice Heitz (ICube Laboratory, UMR 7357 University of Strasbourg, CNRS, INSA, ENGEES), Pierre Charbonnier (Cerema, ENDSUM, Strasbourg). Co-supervisor: Philippe Foucher (Cerema, ENDSUM, Strasbourg)

Theses submitted

Imen Boughanmi (soutenue le 25/03/2021)
Contribution to the development, validation and experimentation of a bench for dielectric characterisation of materials using electromagnetic tomography (Contribution au développement, à la validation et à l’expérimentation d’un banc de caractérisation diélectrique des matériaux en tomographie électromagnétique)
Thesis supervisors: Cyrille Fauchard (CEREMA/ENDSUM) and Zouheir Rhya (IRSEEM/ESIGELEC). Co supervisor: Nabil Benjelloun (IRSEEM/ESIGELEC).

Théo RICHARD (soutenue le 25/11/2020)
Wireless sensor for health monitoring of marine infrastructures (Capteur sans électronique pour la surveillance sans fil de la santé des infrastructures maritimes)
Thesis supervisor: Xavier DEROBERT (Ifsttar). Co supervisors: Amine IHAMOUTEN (Cerema/ENDSUM), Mohamed LATRACH (ESEO)

Shreedhar Savant TODKAR (soutenue le 27/11/2019)
Monitoring subsurface conditions of pavement structures using Ultra-wideband radar technology (Suivi de l’endommagement des structures de chaussées par techinique radar ultra large bande)
Thesis supervisor: Amine IHAMOUTEN (Cerema/ENDSUM)

Aziz Saley (soutenue le 10/12/2018)
Hydraulic tomography of heterogeneous porous media from heat tracing: experimental approach (Tomographie hydraulique des milieux poreux hétérogènes à partir de traçage thermique : approche expérimentales)
Thesis supervisors: Abbderrahim Jardani and Jean-Paul Dupont (Université de Rouen). Co-supervisor: Raphaël Antoine (CEREMA/ENDSUM)

Jingjing PAN (soutenue le 10/07/2018)
Contribution of GPR configuration for parameters estimation and localization ( Estimation des temps de retard et localisation de sources avec des systèmes Radar)
Thesis supervisor: Yide WANG (Univ. Nantes). Co supervisors: Cédric LE BASTARD (Cerema/ENDSUM)

Borui GUAN (soutenue le 22/01/2018)
Characterization of old building materials by electromagnetic non-destructive methods : application to limestone (Caractérisation des matériaux du bâtiment par méthodes non destructives électromagnétiques : application au tuffeau)
Thesis supervisor: Xavier DEROBERT (Ifsttar). Co supervisors: Amine IHAMOUTEN (Cerema/ENDSUM), Géraldine VILLAIN (Ifsttar)

Steven Araujo (soutenue le 18/12/2017)
Models for the characterisation of civil engineering materials by electromagnetic methods (Modèles pour la caractérisation des matériaux du génie civil par méthodes électromagnétiques)
Thesis supervisors : Jean-Mars Saiter (GPM, Université de Rouen). Co supervisors: Cyrille Fauchard (CEREMA/ENDSUM) and Laurent Delbreilh (GPM, Université de Rouen).

Emmanuel Moisan (soutenue le 19/09/2017)
“Full tube” 3D imaging of navigable tunnels (Imagerie 3D du « tube entier » des tunnels navigables)
Thesis supervisors: Pierre Grussenmeyer (UMR 7357 University of Strasbourg, CNRS, INSA, ENGEES), Pierre Charbonnier (Cerema, ENDSUM, Strasbourg). Co-supervisor: Philippe Foucher (Cerema)

Jianzhong LI (soutenue le 02/03/2017)
Investigation on near field source localization and the corresponding Applications ( Investigation sur la localisation de sources en champ proche et sur des applications équivalentes)
Thesis supervisor: Yide WANG (Univ. Nantes). Co supervisors: Gang WEI (South China University of Technology), Cédric LE BASTARD (Cerema/ENDSUM)

Cécile Mézon (soutenue le 10/01/2017)
Characterization of thermo-convective circulations at the scale of a fractured zone by geophysical and numerical methods (Caractérisation des circulations thermo-convectives à l’échelle d’une zone fracturée par méthodes géophysiques et numériques)
Thesis supervisors: Laurent Michon (Université de la Réunion). Co-supervisors: Raphaël Antoine (CEREMA/ENDSUM) and Anthony Finizola (Université de la Réunion)

Meng SUN (soutenue: 30/09/2016)
Advanced signal processing techinques for GPR by taking into account the interface roughness of a stratified medium (Techniques avancées de traitement du signal pour applications GPR en tenant compte des rugosités d’interfaces des milieux stratifiés)
Thesis supervisor: Yide WANG (Univ. Nantes). Co supervisors: Cédric LE BASTARD (Cerema/ENDSUM), Nicolas PINEL (Alyothech)

Carole Kaouane (soutenue le 22/06/2016)
Spectral induced polarization for geotechnical characterization of compacted soils: practical laboratory evaluation (Polarisation provoquée spectrale pour la caractérisation géotechnique des sols compactés : évaluation pratique en laboratoire)
Thesis supervisors: Michel Chouteau (Polytechnique Montréal) and Philippe Côte (Ifsttar). Co supervisor: Cyrille Fauchard (CEREMA/ENDSUM).

Delphine Jacqueline (soutenue le 17/12/2015)
Characterization of the compactness of railway ballast by seismic methods (Caractérisation de la compacité du ballast ferroviaire par méthodes sismiques)
Thesis supervisor: Jean-Pierre Magnan (Ifsttar). Co-supervisors: Cyrille FAUCHARD (CEREMA/ENDSUM) and Jean-François Semblat (Ifsttar)

Xiaoting XIAO (soutenue le 08/12/2015)
Determination of water gradients in concretes using electromagnetic methods (Détermination de gradients de teneur en eau dans les bétons par méthodes électromagnetiques)
Thesis supervisor: Xavier DEROBERT (Ifsttar). Co supervisors: Amine IHAMOUTEN (Cerema/ENDSUM), Géraldine VILLAIN (Ifsttar)
 

Post-doctoral position

David Souriou (2020-2021)
Experimental study of magnetic sensors for the structure health monitoring of reinforced concrete structures. (Etude expérimentale de capteurs magnétiques pour le contrôle de santé intégré de structures en béton armé)
Supervisor: Amine Ihamouten (UGE/MAST/LAMES)

Eliott Renaud (2018-2019)
Development of embedded sensors and software for UAV GPR application (Développement de capteurs embarqués et logiciel pour des applications Radar par drone)
Supervisors: Cyrille Fauchard (CEREMA/ENDSUM), Bruno Beaucamp (CEREMA/ENDSUM)

Imen Hassen (2018-2019)
In English: Geological 3D modelisation of the Vaches Noires Cliffs (Modélisation géologique 3D des falaises des Vaches Noires
Supervisors: Cyrille Fauchard (CEREMA/ENDSUM), Raphaël Antoine ( CEREMA/ENDSUM)

Sam Taoum (2018-2019)
Development of a 3D modelisation and inversion software for electrical resistivity tomography (Développement d’un logiciel de modélisation et d’inversion de tomagraphie de résistivité électrique 3D)
Supervisors: Antoine Tonnoir (INSA de Rouen), Yannick Fargier (Université Gustave Eiffel), Cyrille Fauchard (CEREMA/ENDSUM)

Team manager
Cyrille Fauchard
Directeur de recherche - HDR
Deputy manager
Pierre Charbonnier
Directeur de recherche - HDR
Team members
Pierre Charbonnier
Directeur de recherche - HDR
Cyrille Fauchard
Directeur de recherche - HDR
Philippe Foucher
Chargé de recherche
Christophe Heinkelé
Ingenieur-chercheur
Valérie Muzet
Ingénieure-chercheure
Jean-Jacques Brioist
Ingénieur-chercheur associé
Lucille Saussaye
Ingénieure-chercheure associée
Bruno Beaucamp
Technicien
Rodolph Duval
Technicien
Guillaume Gublin
Technicien
Alex Legrand
Technicien
Vincent Guilbert
Technicien
Cyril Ledun
Technicien
Aude Stresser
Technicien
Lionel Thomas
Technicien
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ENDSUM: Non Destructive Assessment of Structures and Materials

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