Measurement of soil parameters, such as moisture, density and density change, can provide important information for evaluating the stability of earthwork structures and for structural health monitoring. To ensure the stability of flood protection dikes, erosion at the contact zones of different soil zones must be avoided. In this work we propose the use of impedance spectroscopy to measure changes in density and volume caused by contact erosion. Erosion leads generally to a volume decrease in the contact zones between soils with different grain sizes and, consequently, to cavities in the dike structure. For this purpose, a proctor mould was developed for emulating contact erosion and the realisation of impedance measurements. Experimental investigations show a correlation between volume change of the soils in the proctor mould and impedance value. For a volume change of soil in the range of approximately 1.5% to 5.3%, an impedance change arises in the range of 17.2% to 29.8%. With several investigations we proof, that it is possible to detect material transport by impedance spectroscopy.

Measuring weather data in an urban environment is an important task on the journey towards smart cities. Heavy rain can cause flooding in cities and prevent emergency services from reaching their destination because roads or underpasses are blocked. In order to provide a high-resolution site-specific overview in urban areas during heavy rainfall, a dense measurement network is necessary. To achieve this, a smart low-cost rain gauge is needed. In this paper, the current status of the development of an inductive rain gauge is presented. The sensor is based on the eddy current principle and evaluates the frequency of an electrical resonant circuit. For this purpose, a coil is placed under a metal plate. When raindrops hit the plate, it starts to oscillate, which changes the distance to the coil accordingly and causes changes in the frequency of the resonant circuit. Since the sensor is cost-effective, operates self-sufficiently in terms of energy and transmits data wirelessly via LoRaWAN, it can be used flexibly. This enables dense, area-wide coverage over the urban area of interest. The first experimental investigations show a correlation between the size of the rain droplets and the frequency change. Small droplets cause a shift of about 8 kHz and larger droplets of up to 40 kHz. The results prove that raindrops can be detected and categorized using this measurement principle. These data will be used as a basis for future work on calculating precipitation.

The development of innovative measuring technology for process optimization in hot rolling mills becomes more and more relevant because of increasing demands on product quality. Measurement technology for high-resolution non-contact cross-sectional area measurement has shown that the variation in cross-sectional area contains information about the rolling process. This information can be used for the development of new measurement devices and analytical methods for process optimization. The harsh environmental conditions and strict safety regulations result in great effort when implementing a new sensor prototype in hot rolling mills. For this reason, this work presents a mechatronic test stand that can simulate the cross-sectional area variation under laboratory conditions realistically.

Zusammenfassung: Wirbelströme werden in der Mess- und Sensortechnik sehr erfolgreich benutzt, um berührungslos Risse und Abstände metallischer Halbzeuge zu bestimmen. Die Messung von Konturen ist mit diesem industrietauglichen Wirkprinzip bisher nicht realisiert worden. Hier werden häufig optische Messsysteme eingesetzt. Speziell bei glühenden Werkstücken oder bei Benetzung der Halbzeuge mit Bohremulsionen und Schneidölen steigt der Aufwand für den Einsatz optischer Systeme stark an. Messverfahren, die auf hochfrequenten Wirbelströmen basieren, sind aufgrund ihrer einfachen Aufbauten deutlich robuster und somit besser für diese Anwendung geeignet. Voruntersuchungen zeigten, dass mit dieser Methode schon kleine Geometrieabweichungen des Walzgutes von wenigen Mikrometern detektiert werden können. In diesem Beitrag werden zwei Möglichkeiten zur Messung der spektralen Impedanzbeeinflussung eines Messschwingkreises durch die Wirbelströme im Werkstück gegenübergestellt.

To analyze the electric field around bipolar resectoscopes, used in urology, in terms of reasons for late complications after a surgical treatment a flexible multielectrode system was developed to measure the 3-D potential distribution. A high spatial resolution is achieved with the least possible individual measurements under the conditions of a quasi-static electric field. A flexible arrangement and positioning of the measuring points in the vertical direction of the experimental environment enable an adjustable spatial resolution and the selection of the region of interest. The existing influence of the multielectrode system on the measuring results is described and a correction method is presented to achieve significant results. Thus, the multielectrode system is usable for a comparative study of bipolar resectoscopes varying in the arrangement of resection and return electrode.

Impedance spectroscopy is a key enabling measurement method that exploits the measurement of the complex impedance of a material or a system to characterize it or to track its changes over time