Quality inspection on recycled
coarse aggregates using
laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy
Han Xia,
Maarten C.M. Bakker
Kapitel/Beitrag aus dem Buch: Längle, T et al. 2017. OCM 2017 – 3rd International Conference on Optical Characterization of Materials, March 22nd – 23rd, 2017, Karlsruhe, Germany : Conference Proceedings.
Single-shot LIBS was applied for inline quality inspection of RCA (4–12 mm) transported on a conveyor belt at 0.5 m/s
and 30 tonnes/hour under industrial operational conditions.
Major granular contaminants, e.g. brick, gypsum, rebar, plastic and wood were classified of which classification errors were
within the regulated contamination limits (e.g. 0.2–2 cm3/kg for
float and 1–5 wt% for sink contaminants). To this end, we first
designed a LIBS prototype (without auto-focusing) with a large
depth field (± 4 mm) complying with the stream surface height
fluctuations to increase the single-shot sampling rate up to 95 %.
Second, PLS-DA classification model was validated using manually prepared material batches. The quality (cm3/kg or wt%) of
new concrete cast using these material batches, e.g. mechanical
strengths were correlated with the LIBS data (number of classified LIBS spectra). It is shown that the LIBS technology is potentially capable of providing efficient, automated real-time quality
inspection on RCA in-situ.