Evaluation of Potential Uses for a Hand Held Portable X-ray Fluorescence Spectrometer, RB31-015, 2018

(2018) Evaluation of Potential Uses for a Hand Held Portable X-ray Fluorescence Spectrometer, RB31-015, 2018. Transportation, Department of

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Abstract

One of the renewal projects under the Second Strategic Highway Research Program (SHRP 2) explored the potential for broad use of portable spectroscopic devices to fingerprint construction materials commonly used in transportation infrastructure. One of the instruments identified as having potential was a portable X-ray Fluorescence (XRF) instrument. In addition to the uses identified by the research project, there are some potential Iowa specific applications that are explored in this report. Testing was done on carbonate aggregates and stainless steel reinforcement. The conclusions are: 1. The handheld XRF was quick and easy to operate compared to the laboratory XRF. A technician with a few hours of training could perform tests on a wide variety of materials such as soils, rock, paint, plastics, and metals. 2. The handheld XRF with the metals library does very well at identifying the metal type. The flexibility to add additional element limits and metal types to the library is a useful feature for use on specialty alloys. 3. Once the handheld XRF was calibrated for carbonate aggregates, it was fairly accurate and repeatable on prepared samples of rock and powder. Curved or rough surfaces appeared to reduce the accuracy and repeatability. 4. The XRF fingerprint matching algorithm was unable to consistently match pebbles from the same sample. An enhanced algorithm using the full spectrum might produce better results. Some sample preparation might also improve the accuracy.