Extensive research is now under way around the world to develop advanced technologies to enhance the performances of infrastructure systems. While these technological advances are incremental in nature, they will eventually lead to structures which are distinctly different from the actual infrastructure systems. These new structures will be therefore capable of Structural Health Monitoring (SHM), involving applications of electronics and smart materials, aiming to assist engineers in realizing the full benefits of structural health monitoring.intelligent infrastructures, environment, optimization

Constantinos T. Angelis

Dan Baclesanu

Daniel Amariei

Gilbert-Rainer Gillich

Theodoros Loutas

English

Research Papers in Economics

  29 
 
 
 
 
Daniel Amariei, Gilbert Rainer Gillich, Dan Baclesanu, Theodoros Lou 
tas, Constantinos Angelis 
Intelligent Infrastructures Systems for Sustainable 
Urban Environment  
Extensive research is now under way around the world to develop ad 
vanced technologies to enhance the performances of infrastructure sys 
tems.  While  these  technological  advances  are  incremental  in  nature, 
they will eventually lead to structures which are distinctly different from 
the actual infrastructure systems. These new structures will be there 
fore capable of Structural Health Monitoring (SHM), involving applica 
tions of electronics and smart materials, aiming to assist engineers in 
realizing the full benefits of structural health monitoring.  
Keywords: intelligent infrastructures, shape memory alloys, vibration 
dampers 
1. Introduction  
An efficient infrastructure system is essential to every country's productivity, 
security, and quality of life. Smart structures technology offers tremendous oppor 
tunities for improving the performance, quality and environmental impact of prod 
ucts in many industrial sectors. Basic research and development in smart struc 
tures and designer materials have shown great potential for enhancing the func 
tionality, serviceability,  security and increased  lifespan  of  civil  infrastructure  sys 
tems. New construction or the intelligent renewal of ageing and deteriorating civil 
infrastructure  systems  include  efficient  and  innovative  use  of  high performance 
and smart materials, sensors and actuators, along with intelligent mechanical and 
structural systems. High performance designer materials, in particular, require new 
methods of computational materials science.  
The smooth functioning of a modern large city depends on the reliability of 
many inter linked systems which all have to be designed, constructed, monitored 
and  maintained  over  a  long  period  of  time.  Among  these  systems  is  the  large 
number of structures, including buildings and bridges, which often comprise the 
ANALELE UNIVERSITĂłII  
 
“EFTIMIE MURGU” RE IłA 
ANUL XV, NR. 1, 2008, ISSN 1453 - 7397 
   30 
major part of the infrastructure investment. In the present paper we are present 
ing a solution regarding the development of a new generation monitoring system 
of infrastructures, which will better support the development of sustainable urban 
systems, consisting in the use of Shape Memory Alloys for designing an Intelligent 
Vibration Control System IVCS. 
Applying these  future  solutions, the  infrastructure  systems  will not only  last 
longer but will have far lower maintenance demands. They will be able to be modi 
fied to accommodate changes in exploitation or function more quickly and in a far 
less intrusive manner than current technology allows. 
2. Analysis.  
The key challenge of this solution is to bring the current fundamental break 
throughs on the level of materials, IT, electronics and control to the level of indus 
trial use in integrated applications. To be able to realize this, the smart systems 
should not any longer be considered as a product add on. The material and smart 
system  design  process  must  become  part  of  the  complete,  integrated,  product 
creation process, requiring the development of an adapted simulation based Com 
puter Aided Engineering methodology. 
 
 
 
Figure 1. Functioning principle of the IVCS 
 
The core idea is to develop such modeling framework for designing macro 
scale active  noise and vibration control applications  based on the integration of 
intelligent,  high performing,  material  systems.  This  requires  the  development  of   31 
modeling  capabilities  for  the  intelligent  material  systems  and  sensor  /  actuator 
components, for the control systems as well as for their integration in system level 
virtual prototyping models, enabling the evaluation of performance as well as reli 
ability and cost aspects.  
Making this next step in smart systems goes beyond the technological devel 
opments. The key requirement is that the various domain specialists on the level of 
materials, electronics, control systems, design simulation, dynamics, noise, vibra 
tion etc, step outside their niche expertise domain and get fully acquainted with 
the multidisciplinary aspects related to the integration of all these components in 
industrial applications. Without this, smart structures will remain an academic to 
pic. As such integrated knowledge is at present not available with product and sub 
system designers, a multidisciplinary training program is needed and will be devel 
oped. A dedicated training course program, a schedule of research exchanges and 
a well structured training through research program are the basic elements. 
 
 
 
Figure 1. Functional scheme of the IVCS applied to a bridge infrastructure 
 
Based on the above observations, future infrastructures may be expected to 
possess the following salient features: 
1.  durable in the sense that they are highly resistant to environmental degra 
dation over time; 
2.  intelligent, in the sense that they are able to continuously monitor their 
own state of health and activate the control devices when necessary to 
minimize the effects of extreme loadings (e.g. strong winds, earthquakes, 
fires and land slides) to ensure desirable structural performance; and 
3.  performance oriented, in the sense that they are designed and constructed   32 
to satisfy specific whole life system level performance objectives. 
Thus,  we  aim  to  design,  model,  develop  and  validate  an  intelligent  system 
based  on  a  network  of  devices  that  can  be  used  for  simultaneous  damping  of 
structural vibrations and detection of damage in infrastructures systems (buildings, 
bridges,  etc.).  The  IVCS  will  introduce  both  technological  and  methodological 
breakthroughs while addressing some of the main issues of "distributed measure 
ment systems". In order to achieve this, we will develop a real time intelligent vi 
bration control system using innovative semi active and active control devices, i.e., 
a structural condition assessing, controlling and reduction system for infrastructure. 
We propose to monitor the static and dynamic motions of the infrastructure system 
by using acceleration, GPS, and sensors, and develop real time algorithms for data 
analysis and damage detection. 
In particular, the Intelligent Vibration Control System incorporates the follow 
ing advances: 
  the vibrations of the structure are used as energy source for the actuators, 
sensors and other electrical loads. The emphasis is put on highly efficient energy 
harvesting, using state of the art technologies. This induces significant space and 
weight savings compared with various existing smart systems; 
  the sensors data collection is managed through a smart RF network, gath 
ered in a database; 
  based on the signals gathered from the sensoring network regarding the 
vibrations (type, amplitude and prolongation direction), along with signals regard 
ing the SMA actuators (temperature, force and displacement), the intelligent sys 
tem will be able to decide what are the appropriate commands to be executed by 
the dampers; 
  several monitoring strategies are addressed aiming at defining new condi 
tion based maintenance programmes and inspection procedures; 
   the  robustness  of  the  system  is  thoroughly  investigated,  including  the 
structural integrity of the device itself and of the interface between the device and 
the support made of composite materials;  
  in terms of damage evolution, coupling both vibration damping and real 
time monitoring results in a synergetic mechanism between delaying the occur 
rence of critical damage and accelerating its detection.  
Among the IVCS benefits, we can highlight the definition of custom tailored 
maintenance program, the increment of the lifetime of the parts and of the entire 
system or the increment of the reliability of composite parts.  
All these elements help reducing the total cost while being a major contri 
bution to the infrastructure safety and reliability.  
For the development of third generation structures, the use of more so 
phisticated design methods  demand a better understanding of the natures and 
effects of severe hazards including strong winds, earthquakes and fires. Here, the 
use of advanced computational tools, in conjunction with full scale measurements 
(e.g. Xu and Zhan), should be particularly useful. For example, the development   33 
and application of computational fluid dynamics models to predict wind loading has 
received a great deal of recent attention and has the promise of accurate predic 
tions of wind loading and wind structure interactions. In such studies, issues of 
special importance to large urban centers such as the close spacing of buildings 
and the boundary wind structures over an urban area should be given particular 
attention. 
4. Conclusion  
It may be envisaged that in the era of third generation structures, a struc 
ture will be designed using the performance based approach employing a numeri 
cal simulation tool which can capably predict the behavior of the structure includ 
ing the contributions of control devices, the interaction between the monitoring 
and control mechanisms, and deterioration with time. The structure will be con 
structed with a powerful computer (i.e. the brain of the structure) on which an 
Internet GIS based monitoring system is installed and lined to smart sensors and 
control devices. The behavior of the structure, as monitored by the sensors, will 
be  regularly  compared  with  the  predictions  of  the  numerical  model  based  on 
loadings provided by the sensors, so the computer model is continuously improved 
to achieve maximum accuracy. Over the life span of the structure, the state of the 
structure can be accurately assessed by combining the sensor inputs and the nu 
merical model. When extreme loading conditions arise, the monitoring system will 
activate the control devices based on sensor inputs to protect the structure from 
failure. Afterwards, the monitoring system will determine the remaining life of the 
structure. 
It  will  take  some  time  before  third generation  structures  as  envisaged 
above can be realized but it is hoped that in the not so distant future, the idea of 
third generation structures can be implemented and studied in a number of labo 
ratory scale structures. Such model third generation structures can be tested to 
demonstrate and assess their performance. In the transition period to the full re 
alization of third generation structures, the associated technological developments 
can be expected to have a great impact on the performance enhancement  of 
second generation structures. For example, vibration control and health monitor 
ing technologies can be implemented in existing structures for retrofit and moni 
toring  purposes  as  well  as  in  new  third generation  structures.  In  this  sense, 
third generation  structures  and  the  associated  technological  advances  offer 
great benefits for the sustainable development of urban systems. 
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Addresses: 
·  PhD Stud. Eng. Daniel Amariei, “Eftimie Murgu” University of Re iŃa,  
CARDT, PiaŃa Traian Vuia, nr. 1 4, 320085, Re iŃa, dan.amariei@uem.ro 
·  Prof. Dr. Eng. Gilbert Rainer Gillich, “Eftimie Murgu” University of Re iŃa 
  CARDT, PiaŃa Traian Vuia, nr. 1 4, 320085, Re iŃa, raini@uem.ro 
·  Eng. Dan Baclesanu, Romanian Association for Electronic Industry and 
software  ARIES,  Splaiul  Independentei  202A,  Sector  6,  Bucharest,  
DanB@aries.ro 
·  Dr.  Theodoros  Loutas,  University  of  Patras,  Rio  26500,  Greece, 
loutas@mech.upatras.gr 
·  Prof. Dr. Constantinos T. Angelis, Technological Educational Institute of 
Epirus, Kostakioi, 47100, Arta, Greece, kangelis@teiep.gr 

Effect of SMA dampers on nonlinear vibrations of elastic structures.

Method for vibration damping using superelastic alloys. US Patent Issued on September 28, 2004, No. 242870 filed on 2002 09 13 Addresses:

Miclo ină C., Study on the behavior of Ni Ti Shape Memory Alloys in order to highlight the Memory 34 Effect

Neuro control of cable vi bration using semi active magneto rheological dampers ,

Performance based design in earthquake engineering: state of development,

The Origin of Vibration Redemption Effect for Shape Memory Alloys

Intelligent infrastructures systems for sustainable urban environment

http://www.anale-ing.uem.ro/2008/2008_a3.pdf

Intelligent infrastructures systems for sustainable urban environment

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