Stochastic method for in-situ damage analysis

Based on the physics of stochastic processes we present a new approach for structural health monitoring. We show that the new method allows for an in-situ analysis of the elastic features of a mechanical structure even for realistic excitations with correlated noise as it appears in real-world situations. In particular an experimental set-up of undamaged and damaged beam structures was exposed to a noisy excitation under turbulent wind conditions. The method of reconstructing stochastic equations from measured data has been extended to realistic noisy excitations like those given here. In our analysis the deterministic part is separated from the stochastic dynamics of the system and we show that the slope of the deterministic part, which is linked to mechanical features of the material, changes sensitively with increasing damage. The results are more significant than corresponding changes in eigenfrequencies, as commonly used for structural health monitoring.Comment: This paper is accepted by European Physical Journal B on November 2. 2012. 5 pages, 5 figures, 1 tabl

Connecting biodiversity monitoring with soil inventory information - A Swiss case study

Switzerland is one of the first countries in the world to monitor its biological diversity. The Federal Office for the environment (FOEN), triggered by the Rio world summit, initiated 1995 a program for this purpose called Biodiversity Monitoring in Switzerland (BDM). According to the Convention on Biological Diversity various biodiversity targets were defined and the action plan strategy biodiversity Switzerland serves to implement these strategic goals. Unfortunately, up to very recently, soil was not part of these considerations. In the Swiss biodiversity monitoring system a core indicator, species diversity in habitats, is designed to document changes in species diversity of vascular plants and mosses in Switzerland’s major habitats. Together with the current land use and general metadata like elevation, slope, exposition and geology these data are stored in a central database. Since 2001 the totally 1’600 sites based on a regular grid (6 by 4 km) are resampled in a 5 years interval. In the third sampling campaign (2011-2015) the setting was broadened by taking soil samples at all locations possible. At each site 4 replicates 0-20 cm were taken to provide predictions on plot scale variability. All samples were prepared in the laboratory of the Swiss Soil Monitoring Network. Exploratory data analyses for pH, soil organic carbon and nitrogen revealed distinct patterns according to land use as well as to altitude; pH decreases from colline to alpine zones. Furthermore, regional analyses show enormous differences between the northern and southern side of the Alps. Connecting measured soil parameters with the outcome of the BDM survey enables to determine the impact of environmental conditions on species diversity of vascular plants and mosses as well as on soil-plant interactions. Therefore, connecting measured soil inventory data and plant and moss diversity information provide a clear added value to the Biodiversity Monitoring in Switzerland

Trace gas monitoring with infrared laser-based detection schemes

The success of laser-based trace gas sensing techniques crucially depends on the availability and performance of tunable laser sources combined with appropriate detection schemes. Besides near-infrared diode lasers, continuously tunable midinfrared quantum cascade lasers and nonlinear optical laser sources are preferentially employed today. Detection schemes are based on sensitive absorption measurements and comprise direct absorption in multi-pass cells as well as photoacoustic and cavity ringdown techniques in various configurations. We illustrate the performance of several systems implemented in our laboratory. These include time-resolved multicomponent traffic emission measurements with a mobile CO2-laser photoacoustic system, a diode-laser based cavity ringdown device for measurements of impurities in industrial process control, isotope ratio measurements with a difference frequency (DFG) laser source combined with balanced path length detection, detection of methylamines for breath analysis with both a near-IR diode laser and a DFG source, and finally, acetone measurements with a heatable multipass cell intended for vapor phase studies on doping agents in urine sample

Entwicklung und Darstellung von Strategieoptionen zur Behandlung von Saatgut im ökologischen Landbau

Zur Erzeugung gesunden Saatgutes steht im Öko-Landbau neben präventiven Maßnahmen eine Reihe verschiedener Saatgutbehandlungsverfahren zur Verfügung (physikalische Methoden, Pflanzenextrakte, Naturstoffe und Mikroorganismenpräparate), die jedoch für die zahlreichen, wichtigen Wirt/Pathogen-Kombinationen nicht hinreichend untersucht waren. Inhalt und Ziel dieses Verbundvorhabens war es, Erfolg versprechende, aber hinsichtlich Handhabbarkeit und Wirksamkeit bislang nicht ausreichend untersuchte Varianten zu überprüfen sowie Schwellenwerte zu ermitteln, die eine Saatgutbehandlung indizieren. Um eine schnelle Übertragbarkeit wirksamer Verfahren in die Praxis zu ermöglichen, wurden neben den physikalischen Verfahren überwiegend gelistete Pflanzenstärkungsmittel untersucht. Im ersten Untersuchungsschritt wurden Klimakammer- und Gewächshausversuche angelegt. Ansätze, die sich unter diesen Modellbedingungen für die Praxistestung als geeignet erwiesen, wurden in Feldversuchen (Projekt 03OE127/2) überprüft. Für wichtige Wirt/Pathogen-Kombinationen konnten unter Modellbedingungen Behandlungsvarianten mit guten Wirkungen ausgewählt werden, die keine bis geringe negative Auswirkungen auf die Keimfähigkeit hatten. Bei Sommergerste mit Netzflecken oder Streifenkrankheit sowie bei Haferflugbrand konnten nach Behandlung mit Heißwasser, LEBERMOOSER, Ethanol, Milsana flüssig, Serenade und/oder Cedomon gute bis sehr gute Wirkungen erreicht werden. An Winterweizen mit Fusarium spp., Stagonospora nodorum bzw. Schneeschimmel sowie Winterroggen mit Schneeschimmel wurde eine Wirkung vor allem durch FZB 53, Warm- oder Heißwasserbehandlung und LEBERMOOSER erreicht. Von den besonders schwer zu bekämpfenden Krankheiten wurden Anthraknose an Lupine und Ascochyta pisi an Erbse mit Feuchtheißluft reduziert, jedoch war die Wirkung nicht ausreichend

An Iterative Procedure for the Estimation of Drift and Diffusion Coefficients of Langevin Processes

A general method is proposed which allows one to estimate drift and diffusion coefficients of a stochastic process governed by a Langevin equation. It extends a previously devised approach [R. Friedrich et al., Physics Letters A 271, 217 (2000)], which requires sufficiently high sampling rates. The analysis is based on an iterative procedure minimizing the Kullback-Leibler distance between measured and estimated two time joint probability distributions of the process.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figure

Development of tsunami early warning systems and future challenges

Fostered by and embedded in the general development of information and communications technology (ICT), the evolution of tsunami warning systems (TWS) shows a significant development from seismic-centred to multi-sensor system architectures using additional sensors (e.g. tide gauges and buoys) for the detection of tsunami waves in the ocean. <br><br> Currently, the beginning implementation of regional tsunami warning infrastructures indicates a new phase in the development of TWS. A new generation of TWS should not only be able to realise multi-sensor monitoring for tsunami detection. Moreover, these systems have to be capable to form a collaborative communication infrastructure of distributed tsunami warning systems in order to implement regional, ocean-wide monitoring and warning strategies. <br><br> In the context of the development of the German Indonesian Tsunami Early Warning System (GITEWS) and in the EU-funded FP6 project Distant Early Warning System (DEWS), a service platform for both sensor integration and warning dissemination has been newly developed and demonstrated. In particular, standards of the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) and the Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards (OASIS) have been successfully incorporated. <br><br> In the FP7 project Collaborative, Complex and Critical Decision-Support in Evolving Crises (TRIDEC), new developments in ICT (e.g. complex event processing (CEP) and event-driven architecture (EDA)) are used to extend the existing platform to realise a component-based technology framework for building distributed tsunami warning systems