Novel Approaches for Structural Health Monitoring

The thirty-plus years of progress in the field of structural health monitoring (SHM) have left a paramount impact on our everyday lives. Be it for the monitoring of fixed- and rotary-wing aircrafts, for the preservation of the cultural and architectural heritage, or for the predictive maintenance of long-span bridges or wind farms, SHM has shaped the framework of many engineering fields. Given the current state of quantitative and principled methodologies, it is nowadays possible to rapidly and consistently evaluate the structural safety of industrial machines, modern concrete buildings, historical masonry complexes, etc., to test their capability and to serve their intended purpose. However, old unsolved problematics as well as new challenges exist. Furthermore, unprecedented conditions, such as stricter safety requirements and ageing civil infrastructure, pose new challenges for confrontation. Therefore, this Special Issue gathers the main contributions of academics and practitioners in civil, aerospace, and mechanical engineering to provide a common ground for structural health monitoring in dealing with old and new aspects of this ever-growing research field

Computer Vision-Based Structural Displacement Measurement Robust to Light-Induced Image Degradation for In-Service Bridges

The displacement responses of a civil engineering structure can provide important information regarding structural behaviors that help in assessing safety and serviceability. A displacement measurement using conventional devices, such as the linear variable differential transformer (LVDT), is challenging owing to issues related to inconvenient sensor installation that often requires additional temporary structures. A promising alternative is offered by computer vision, which typically provides a low-cost and non-contact displacement measurement that converts the movement of an object, mostly an attached marker, in the captured images into structural displacement. However, there is limited research on addressing light-induced measurement error caused by the inevitable sunlight in field-testing conditions. This study presents a computer vision-based displacement measurement approach tailored to a field-testing environment with enhanced robustness to strong sunlight. An image-processing algorithm with an adaptive region-of-interest (ROI) is proposed to reliably determine a marker's location even when the marker is indistinct due to unfavorable light. The performance of the proposed system is experimentally validated in both laboratory-scale and field experiments

Strategies of anomalies detection in bridges and tunnels as a tool for structural health management. New approaches and AI support.

L'abstract è presente nell'allegato / the abstract is in the attachmen

Laser Scanner Technology

Laser scanning technology plays an important role in the science and engineering arena. The aim of the scanning is usually to create a digital version of the object surface. Multiple scanning is sometimes performed via multiple cameras to obtain all slides of the scene under study. Usually, optical tests are used to elucidate the power of laser scanning technology in the modern industry and in the research laboratories. This book describes the recent contributions reported by laser scanning technology in different areas around the world. The main topics of laser scanning described in this volume include full body scanning, traffic management, 3D survey process, bridge monitoring, tracking of scanning, human sensing, three-dimensional modelling, glacier monitoring and digitizing heritage monuments

Integrated railway remote condition monitoring

The profound value of wayside monitoring in helping safeguard the RAMS of railway operations is undeniable. However, despite significant investments by the rail industry, the efficiency and reliability of wayside monitoring have not reached the desired level. Structural deterioration of the rail infrastructure and rolling stock faults still remain a significant problem which needs to be addressed as traffic density, train speeds and axle loads increase in rail networks around the world. The main objectives of this study were to develop and evaluate an advanced wayside monitoring system based on acoustic emission and vibration analysis that can detect various types of axle bearing defects in rolling stock and structural deterioration in cast manganese crossings. The potential architecture for different levels of system correlation has been proposed which can be further integrated with customised monitoring system. A novel signal processing technique based on spectral coherence has been developed. This particular method is based on the identification of suitable templates containing features of interest. It also features in identifying the severity of the defect. In addition, a suitable approach for data fusion from various sensors has been investigated. Successful tests have been carried out under simulated conditions and in the UK network

Intelligent Transportation Related Complex Systems and Sensors

Building around innovative services related to different modes of transport and traffic management, intelligent transport systems (ITS) are being widely adopted worldwide to improve the efficiency and safety of the transportation system. They enable users to be better informed and make safer, more coordinated, and smarter decisions on the use of transport networks. Current ITSs are complex systems, made up of several components/sub-systems characterized by time-dependent interactions among themselves. Some examples of these transportation-related complex systems include: road traffic sensors, autonomous/automated cars, smart cities, smart sensors, virtual sensors, traffic control systems, smart roads, logistics systems, smart mobility systems, and many others that are emerging from niche areas. The efficient operation of these complex systems requires: i) efficient solutions to the issues of sensors/actuators used to capture and control the physical parameters of these systems, as well as the quality of data collected from these systems; ii) tackling complexities using simulations and analytical modelling techniques; and iii) applying optimization techniques to improve the performance of these systems. It includes twenty-four papers, which cover scientific concepts, frameworks, architectures and various other ideas on analytics, trends and applications of transportation-related data

Bewertung und Verifikation der Leistung der satellitenbasierten Zugortung

Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) are potentially applicable for various railway applications, especially the safety-related applications such as train localisation for the purpose of train control. In order to integrate GNSS for train localisation, a trustable stand-alone GNSS-based localisation unit should be developed. Then to comply with EN 50126 (reliability, availability, maintainability, and safety; RAMS) standards, the demonstration of GNSS quality of service (QoS) should be evaluated in consistent with RAMS. However there are currently no appropriate performance evaluation methods on GNSS for railway safety-related applications. This dissertation identifies the required performance for train localisation in consideration of GNSS QoS and railway RAMS. The common and different properties of the performance are analysed in detail using consistent attribute hierarchy structures based on UML class diagram. Then formalised performance requirements are proposed quantitatively on four properties (accuracy, reliability, availability, and safety integrity). After that, the evaluation and verification methodologies are introduced. The evaluation methodology is using a reference measurement system for GNSS receiver measured train location accuracy identification, and a stochastic Petri net (SPN) model for GNSS receiver measured train location accuracy categorisation. The SPN model illustrates the GNSS receiver measured train locations into three states (up state, degraded state, and faulty state). Then the four proposed properties are allocated and estimated formally using the three states in the SPN model. The verification methodology is used to verify the GNSS receiver measured train location in real time based on a localisation unit. The GNSS receiver measured train locations are verified using hypothesis testing methods based on the accurate digital track map provided beforehand. Then train location estimation from the localisation unit is verified according to the mileage of the train. With the verified train location estimation from the localisation unit, the corresponding safety margin for each train location is calculated. The data for evaluation and verification methodologies are collected from a test train running on a railway track in High Tatra Mountains. The results show an approach of the possible certification procedure for the GNSS receivers in railway safety-related applications.Globales Satellitennavigationssystem (GNSS) können für verschiedene Anwendungen im Schienenverkehr, vor allem für sicherheitsrelevante Anwendungen wie Zugortung zum Zweck der Zugsicherung gestützt werden. Um GNSS für Zugortung zu integrieren, muss eine eigenständige satellitenbasierte Ortungseinheit entwickelt werden. Um die Entwicklung in Einklang mit EN 50126 (Überlebensfähigkeit, Verfügbarkeit, Instandhaltbarkeit, und Sicherheit; RAMS) durchzuführen, muss der Nachweis der Güte von GNSS (Quality of Service; QoS) entsprechend in Einklang mit dieser Norm bewertet werden. Allerdings gibt es zurzeit keine RAMS Bewertungsverfahren für satellitenbasierte sicherheitsrelevante Anwendungen im Schienenverkehr. Diese Dissertation identifiziert die notwendigen Anforderungen für die Zugortung unter Berücksichtigung der Güte von GNSS und den bestehenden Normen bezüglich RAMS im Schienenverkehr. Die gemeinsamen und unterschiedlichen Eigenschaften der Anforderungen werden detailliert mit Nutzung einer Attributhierarchie basierend auf UML-Klassendiagrammen dargestellt. Danach werden formalisierte Leistungsanforderungen quantitativ für vier Eigenschaften (Genauigkeit, Zuverlässigkeit, Verfügbarkeit und Sicherheitsintegrität) vorgeschlagen. Darauf aufbauend werden die Bewertungs- und Verifikations- Methoden eingeführt. Die Bewertungsmethode nutzt ein Referenzmesssystem zur Identifikation der Zugortungsgenauigkeit der GNSS Empfänger und ein stochastischen Petri-Netz-Modell (SPN-Modell) für die Kategorisierung der GNSS Empfänger Zugortmessungen. Das SPN-Modell veranschaulicht die GNSS Empfänger Zugortmessungen in drei Zuständen (up state, degraded state, faulty state). Dann werden die vier vorgeschlagenen Eigenschaften zugeordnet und formal mit Nutzung der drei Zustände im SPN-Modell geschätzt. Die Verifikationsmethode wird verwendet, um die GNSS Empfänger Zugortmessungen in Echtzeit zu verifizieren. Die GNSS Empfänger Zugortmessungen werden mit einer Hypothesentestmethode auf der Grundlage der genauen digitalen Streckenkarte verifiziert. Mit der verifizierten geschätzten Zugortmessung wird der resultierende Sicherheitsbereich für jeden Zugort berechnet. Die Daten für die Auswertungs- und Verifikationsmethoden wurden von einem Zug im Regelbetrieb auf einer Eisenbahnstrecke in der Hohen Tatra gesammelt. Die Ergebnisse dieser Arbeit zeigen einen Ansatz der möglichen Zertifizierungsverfahren für die GNSS-Empfänger für sicherheitsrelevante Anwendungen im Schienenverkehr

Surface and Sub-Surface Analyses for Bridge Inspection

The development of bridge inspection solutions has been discussed in the recent past. In this dissertation, significant development and improvement on the state-of-the-art in the field of bridge inspection using multiple sensors (e.g. ground penetrating radar (GPR) and visual sensor) has been proposed. In the first part of this research (discussed in chapter 3), the focus is towards developing effective and novel methods for rebar detection and localization for sub-surface bridge inspection of steel rebars. The data has been collected using Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) sensor on real bridge decks. In this regard, a number of different approaches have been successively developed that continue to improve the state-of-the-art in this particular research area. The second part (discussed in chapter 4) of this research deals with the development of an automated system for steel bridge defect detection system using a Multi-Directional Bicycle Robot. The training data has been acquired from actual bridges in Vietnam and validation is performed on data collected using Bicycle Robot from actual bridge located in Highway-80, Lovelock, Nevada, USA. A number of different proposed methods have been discussed in chapter 4. The final chapter of the dissertation will conclude the findings from the different parts and discuss ways of improving on the existing works in the near future

Fuzzy Logic

The capability of Fuzzy Logic in the development of emerging technologies is introduced in this book. The book consists of sixteen chapters showing various applications in the field of Bioinformatics, Health, Security, Communications, Transportations, Financial Management, Energy and Environment Systems. This book is a major reference source for all those concerned with applied intelligent systems. The intended readers are researchers, engineers, medical practitioners, and graduate students interested in fuzzy logic systems