FHWA NDE CENTER FACILITIES

FHWA NDE Center Laboratory

The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) Nondestructive Evaluation (NDE) Center laboratory serves as the nucleus of the FHWA NDE Center and is located in the FHWA's Turner Fairbank Highway Research Center (TFHRC) in McLean, Virginia. The FHWA NDE Center is a 439 m² newly renovated laboratory and office space that provides a location for preliminary test and evaluation of NDE technologies.

This state-of-the-art lab includes an 11.8 m by 3.6 m structural loading floor (Photo 1) used to construct mock-ups of field conditions and produce component specimens. The laboratory also acts as a staging area for research conducted at the test bridges. The laboratory space is equipped with storage areas and test set-up areas (Photo 2).

An x-ray computed tomography and digital radiography imaging system (pictured at right) has been added to the FHWA NDE Center Research facility. The advanced computed tomography imaging system ACTIS 600/420 was built by Bio-Imaging Research, Inc. according to specifications provided by researchers at the FHWA NDE Center. The system consists of dual-focus 420-kV and microfocus 160-kV continuous x-ray sources. It includes two digital detectors, with a 512-channel linear array detector for tomographic imaging and a tri-field image intensifier with a digital camera for both real-time radiography and microtomography. The system can benefit many industrial and scientific applications, including materials research, non-destructive testing, core sample characterization, weld inspection, failure analysis, and reverse engineering. It is suitable for x-ray inspection of metallic and non-metallic items over a wide range of densities. The system produces cross-sectional computed tomography (CT) images, in-motion real-time radiography (RTR) images, and digitized radiographed (DR) images. In addition to density mapping, CT provides complete 3D morphology of parts with highly accurate dimensioning capability. The CT data sets can be converted to line drawings and exported as splines for solid modeling and comparison to Computer-Aided Design (CAD) drawings. Computed tomography also provides superior flaw detection capability of extremely small cracks, porosities, and voids that are normally not visible with film radiography inspection. The system can provide spatial resolution of up to 20 lines per millimeter or 25-microns. In addition, sample sizes up to a weight of 200-kg and a length of 100-cm can be accomodated. The system has been used by researchers at the FHWA NDE Center to conduct projects such as determination of air void parameters, crack propagation, and internal structure characterization of portland cement concrete and asphalt concrete structures.

An area for controlled storage (Photo 5) of the collection of component specimens has been established in the laboratory. Strict control of this storage environment will allow the collection of defect specimens to be developed with confidence that the defects will remain relatively unchanged over time.

As part of the renovation, a 134 m2 mezzanine level office space (Photo 6) for the FHWA NDE Center staff has been created. This area will provide office space for on-site staff, visiting professionals, and graduate students. An extensive library on the mezzanine level containing books, articles, and other publications related to NDE provides an excellent resource for future NDE investigations.

FHWA NDE Center Facilities continued:
Component Specimens 
Test Bridges

For more information, please contact either by e-mail or telephone.

Frank Jalinoos  (202) 493-3082

frank.jalinoos@fhwa.dot.gov

 

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