Bridges Structural Health Monitoring and Deterioration Detection Synthesis of Knowledge and Technology

INE/AUTC 10.0

On systematic approaches for interpreted information transfer of inspection data from bridge models to structural analysis

In conjunction with the improved methods of monitoring damage and degradation processes, the interest in reliability assessment of reinforced concrete bridges is increasing in recent years. Automated imagebased inspections of the structural surface provide valuable data to extract quantitative information about deteriorations, such as crack patterns. However, the knowledge gain results from processing this information in a structural context, i.e. relating the damage artifacts to building components. This way, transformation to structural analysis is enabled. This approach sets two further requirements: availability of structural bridge information and a standardized storage for interoperability with subsequent analysis tools. Since the involved large datasets are only efficiently processed in an automated manner, the implementation of the complete workflow from damage and building data to structural analysis is targeted in this work. First, domain concepts are derived from the back-end tasks: structural analysis, damage modeling, and life-cycle assessment. The common interoperability format, the Industry Foundation Class (IFC), and processes in these domains are further assessed. The need for usercontrolled interpretation steps is identified and the developed prototype thus allows interaction at subsequent model stages. The latter has the advantage that interpretation steps can be individually separated into either a structural analysis or a damage information model or a combination of both. This approach to damage information processing from the perspective of structural analysis is then validated in different case studies

Remote data acquisition for condition monitoring of wind turbines

While the number of offshore wind turbines is growing and turbines getting bigger and more expensive, the need for good condition monitoring systems is rising. From the research it is clear that failures of the gearbox, and in particular the gearwheels and bearings of the gearbox, have been responsible for the most downtime of a wind turbine. Gearwheels and bearings are being simulated in a multi-sensor environment to observe the wear on the surface

Develop Guidelines for Pavement Preservation Treatments and for Building a Pavement Preservation Program Platform for Alaska

INE/AUTC 12.0

Life Cycle Costs for Alaska Bridges

INE/AUTC 15.0

Corrosion Damage Analysis and Material Characterization of Sherman and Centaur - The Historic Military Tanks

A study of corrosion damage and material characterization of two historic military tanks, the Sherman and Centaur is reported. Experiments were conducted to analyse surface corrosion and corrosion propagation from surface to sub-surface. Significant surface corrosion was found, this phenomenon was further facilitated by delamination failure mechanisms. Corrosion depth for the Sherman was approximately 110 µm, where sulphide inclusions were detected in the sub-surface analysis. The Centaur’s analysis showed corrosion pits at 100 µm depth. These pits possess random geometrical configurations with evidence of sulfur, sodium and calcium

Aging concrete structures: a review of mechanics and concepts

The safe and cost-efficient management of our built infrastructure is a challenging task considering the expected service life of at least 50 years. In spite of time-dependent changes in material properties, deterioration processes and changing demand by society, the structures need to satisfy many technical requirements related to serviceability, durability, sustainability and bearing capacity. This review paper summarizes the challenges associated with the safe design and maintenance of aging concrete structures and gives an overview of some concepts and approaches that are being developed to address these challenges

Video Tester -- A multiple-metric framework for video quality assessment over IP networks

This paper presents an extensible and reusable framework which addresses the problem of video quality assessment over IP networks. The proposed tool (referred to as Video-Tester) supports raw uncompressed video encoding and decoding. It also includes different video over IP transmission methods (i.e.: RTP over UDP unicast and multicast, as well as RTP over TCP). In addition, it is furnished with a rich set of offline analysis capabilities. Video-Tester analysis includes QoS and bitstream parameters estimation (i.e.: bandwidth, packet inter-arrival time, jitter and loss rate, as well as GOP size and I-frame loss rate). Our design facilitates the integration of virtually any existing video quality metric thanks to the adopted Python-based modular approach. Video-Tester currently provides PSNR, SSIM, ITU-T G.1070 video quality metric, DIV and PSNR-based MOS estimations. In order to promote its use and extension, Video-Tester is open and publicly available.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figures. For the Google Code project, see http://video-tester.googlecode.com

The Trade Deficit and Banking Sector Results in Romania and Bulgaria

We tested for the significance of macroeconomic variables that condition non-performing loan ratios. Our estimates for Bulgaria and Romania support the hypothesis that the growth of available finance might harm banking performance and deteriorate NPL dynamics, most probably due to the overheating of economies. Since we confirmed that the dynamics of net exports of these economies deteriorated the NPL ratio, the weakening of growth in export-oriented industries could lead to economic contraction with a direct impact on the sustainability of banking-sector results in these countries. Large current account deficits are typical for emerging markets and do not pose a problem as long as they are caused by the importing of capital goods, and, if future export growth is strong enough to reimburse foreign debt. Structural dependence on external financing - which is in part a by-product of the effect of low levels of internal saving - have led to large current account deficits and financial instability.cyclicality, non-performing loans, systemic risk, asset quality, economic growth