Steel utility poles: advantages and applications

This article presents a novel assessment framework to identify the health condition of wood utility poles. The innovative approach is based on the integration of data mining and machine learning methods and combines advanced signal processing, multi-sensor data fusion and decision ensembles to classify different damage condition types of wood poles. In the proposed framework, wavelet packet analysis is employed to transform captured multi-channel stress wave signals into energy information, which is consequently compressed by principal component analysis to extract a feature vector. Furthermore, support vector machine multi-classifier, optimized by genetic algorithm, is designed to identify the pole condition type. Finally, evidence theory is applied to fuse different assessment results from different sensors for a final decision. For validation of the proposed approach, the wood pole specimens with three common damage condition types are tested using a novel multi-sensor narrow-band frequency-excitation non-destructive testing system in the laboratory. The final experimental analysis results confirm that the proposed approach is capable of making full use of multi-sensor information and providing an effective and accurate identification on types of conditions in wood poles.

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Design and Evaluation of a System for Testing and Analysis of Rollovers With Narrow Objects

Advances in Bioengineering ◽

10.1115/imece2003-43104 ◽

2003 ◽

Author(s):

Steven E. Meyer ◽

Brian Herbst ◽

Stephen Forrest ◽

Anthony Sances ◽

Srirangam Kumaresan

Keyword(s):

High Speed ◽

Significant Risk ◽

Roof Structure ◽

Design Alternatives ◽

Utility Poles ◽

Vehicle Rollover ◽

The Government ◽

Occupant Kinematics ◽

Survival Space ◽

Injury Potential

Recent statistics highlight the significant risk of serious and fatal injuries to occupants involved in rollover collisions due to excessive roof crush. The government has reported that in 2002, Sports Utility Vehicle rollover related fatalities increased by 14% to more than 2400 annually. 61% of all SUV fatalities included rollovers. [1] Rollover crashes rely primarily upon the roof structures to maintain occupant survival space. Frequently these crashes occur off the travel lanes of the roadway and, therefore, can include impacts with various types of narrow objects such as light poles, utility poles and/or trees. A test device and methodology is presented which allows for dynamic, repeatable rollover impact evaluation of complete vehicle roof structures with such narrow objects. These tests allow for the incorporation of Anthropomorphic Test Dummies (ATDs) which can be instrumented to measure accelerations, forces and moments to evaluate injury potential. High-speed video allows for detailed analysis of occupant kinematics and evaluation of injury causation. Criteria such as restraint performance, injury potential, survival space and the effect of roof crush associated with various types of design alternatives, countermeasures and impact circumstances can also be evaluated. In addition to presentation of the methodology, two representative vehicle crash tests are also reported. Results indicated that the reinforced roof structure significantly reduced the roof deformation compared to the production roof structure.

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