scholarly journals Risks and Opportunities of Using Fibre Optic Sensors for Long Term Infrastructure Health Monitoring Systems in an 18 Year Old Installation

Author(s):  
I. Robles Urquijo ◽  
A. Quintela Incera ◽  
Steven Van Vaerenbergh ◽  
D. Inaud ◽  
J.M. Lopez Higuera
Author(s):  
Travis McEvoy ◽  
Eric Dierks ◽  
Jason Weaver ◽  
Sumedh Inamdar ◽  
Krystian Zimowski ◽  
...  

Many factors must be addressed when designing infrastructure health monitoring systems. Structures in remote locations or with limited accessibility make the requirements for these systems unique and challenging. For locations where connection to the power grid is difficult or impossible, monitoring system life is severely limited by battery technology. Alternatively, an energy harvesting power supply can make the monitoring system independent of the grid while increasing capabilities and lifetime beyond what is possible with current battery technology. This paper discusses a design and development methodology for developing energy harvesting aspects of a health monitoring system. The system comprises a sensor module that monitors the health of the structure, an on-site processing module that analyzes the data, and a wireless communication module that transmits the data. The method is demonstrated by examples of energy harvesting systems for a bridge monitoring application, using solar, wind, and vibration energy harvesters to provide power to a wireless network, local data processors, and strain gauges. Theoretical feasibility of energy harvesting in these domains has been previously demonstrated. The examples described in this paper validate the feasibility previously calculated as well as illustrate shortcomings in the current technology that inhibit potential implementation. The examples also show areas where innovation is needed to continue to advance the technology of energy harvesting in this application on infrastructure.


2021 ◽  
pp. 147592172199662
Author(s):  
Michela Torti ◽  
Ilaria Venanzi ◽  
Simon Laflamme ◽  
Filippo Ubertini

Life-cycle cost analysis is an approach that has gained popularity for assisting the design of civil infrastructures. The life-cycle cost analysis approach can be leveraged for structures equipped with structural health monitoring systems in order to quantify the benefits of the technology and de facto support its long-term implementation. However, for new structures, the long-term assessment of the expected value of the total investment cost, in terms of the current worth at the design time, is still the focus of ongoing research due to unknowns and uncertainties on the impact of the structural health monitoring system on long-term structural performance. This article proposes a new combined model of life-cycle cost formulation and simulation methodology for the long-term financial assessment of transportation bridges equipped with seismic structural health monitoring systems, in order to evaluate the total costs and benefits offered by such monitoring systems for post-seismic assessments. The formulation characterizes the time evolution of bridge management cost terms, highlighting the most sensitive parameters. The simulation methodology allows to quantitatively weigh each maintenance action on the total cost based on when the action is performed. The model is used to compare structures managed by the traditional approach of post-earthquake inspection versus those managed by a condition-based approach enabled by structural health monitoring systems. The originality of the model empowers the comparison by payback time, defined as the break-even point between costs and benefits of a structural health monitoring system, as well as by economic gain, defined as the difference between the total costs of an unmonitored versus a monitored structure through the end of service life. The proposed model is demonstrated through parametric analyses on a case study consisting of a continuous steel-concrete composite bridge, where the structural health monitoring system is used to monitor the elastic limit state condition of bending forces in piers during the earthquake.


Materials ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (17) ◽  
pp. 2704 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wenlong Wang ◽  
Xia Yue ◽  
He Huang ◽  
Chao Wang ◽  
Diwei Mo ◽  
...  

Carbon nanotube-based conductive polymer composites (CPC) showed great potentials for self-sensing and in situ structural health monitoring systems. Prediction of the long-term performance for such materials would be a meaningful topic for engineering design. In this work, the changing behavior of the long-term resistance of a multi-walled carbon nanotubes/epoxy resin composite gasket was studied under different temperature and loading conditions. Glass transition strongly influenced the resistance behavior of the composite during the thermal creep process. Similar to classical Kelvin–Voigt creep model, a model considering both the destruction and recovery processes of the conductive network inside the CPC was established. The long-term resistance variation can be predicted based on the model, and the results provided here may serve as a useful guide for further design of smart engineering structural health monitoring systems.


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