Academy

  

Webminar 09 (Thursday, Janury 21st 2010)

Structural Health Monitoring for Buildings

This month we are glad to introduce to you a general overview about the various monitoring strategies which can be applied to assess the structural performances of buildings:
High-rise buildings and arena/stadium are complex structures. They are made of multiple elements and components that are stressed and interact with one another when exposed to external phenomena. Buildings vary widely in size, geometry, structural system, construction material, and foundation characteristics. These attributes influence how a building performs when overcharged or when under stress of natural events.
Structural Health Monitoring allows rapid assessment of a building’s state of health and such approach is becoming recognized as a proper mean to increase the safety and optimize operational and maintenance activities of complex buildings. The data resulting from the monitoring program are used to improve the operation, the maintenance, the repair and the replacement of the structure based on reliable and objective data. Detection of ongoing damages can be used to discriminate deviations from the design performance. Monitoring data can be integrated in structural management systems and increase the quality of decisions by providing reliable and unbiased information.
The malfunctioning of residential, high-rise buildings and arena/stadiums can often have serious consequences. The most severe are failures involving human victims. Even when there is no loss of life, populations suffer if the structure is partially or completely out of service. The economic impact of structural deficiency is reflected by costs of reconstruction as well as losses in the other branches of the economy.
Learning how a residential high-rise building performs in real conditions will help to design better structures for the future. This can lead to cheaper, safer and more durable structures with increased reliability, performance and safety. Structural monitoring using SMARTEC solutions represents a good way to enlarge knowledge and assessment on the structural performance and integrity.
This seminar presents a number of significant application examples and reference case studies.

 
 

Webminar 08 (Monday, October 27, 2009)

Ship Health Monitoring Systems

This month we are glad to introduce to you a general overview about Structural Health Monitoring applied to the naval field.

Structural Health Monitoring allows rapid assessment of a ship’s state of health, with particular reference to the double hull tanks. The data resulting from the monitoring program are used to improve the efficiency of the load and unload operations, the maintenance, the repair and the replacement of the structure based on reliable and objective data. Detection of ongoing damages can be used to discriminate deviations from the design performance. A real-time diagnosis onboard means security for passengers and cargos. Another important issue is the safeguard of the environment, since this survey helps to prevent, avoid or drastically limit the dispersion of polluting substances in the seawater.

This Web Seminar presents a generalized approach to the implementation of Ship SHM, combining multiple sensing technologies: MuST System for checking the structural behaviour of the hull using Fiber Bragg Gratings (FBG) deformation sensors and DiTemp System for leakage detection through distributed temperature sensing cables. These methods will be also illustrated by examples and references based on installation of sensors carried out on real ships.

Learning more about how a ship performs in real-life operating conditions helps to better design their structures for the future. This can lead to draw up cheaper, safer and more durable structures with increased reliability, performance and warrants of safety (nowadays also ever-increasingly acknowledged by the Major Insurance Company Groups). Structural monitoring using SMARTEC Integrated Solutions represents a privileged way to enlarge knowledge and potentiality of assessment on the structural performances and the integrity of the structures designed for the maritime application field.

 
 

Webminar 07 (Monday, September 28, 2009)

SHMLive

We are glad to present you a Web seminar on SHMLive, a new service exclusively offered by the Civil Engineering group of Roctest including Telemac and Smartec.
Offered as a complete turnkey solution for a fixed monthly fee, SHMLive can save both up front capital costs and ongoing maintenance and repair costs for the owners of bridges, tunnels, high rise buildings and other infrastructure, interested in applying Structural Health Monitoring. SHMLive offers an unprecedented choice that has not previously been available in the marketplace. Traditionally, infrastructure owners have had to pay the full cost of a monitoring system at the outset, and then concern themselves with managing and interpreting the endless flow of data generated or with the lack of in-house engineers able to properly analyse the large amount of resulting data. With SHMLive, they can achieve superior monitoring capability and ease of adoption, with more predictable impact on their budgets and a guarantee that the system will provide the required information.
SHMLive deployments will begin with Roctest working with the infrastructure owner to identify specific objectives and design a customized monitoring system. Roctest will then install, operate and maintain the system providing a guaranteed service level.
All data will be automatically transferred to Roctest’s secure online database where the data will be displayed in real-time on the SHMLive secure web site and data accessibility will be allowed to approved users only. With the support of selected local engineering partners, warning and alert limits can then be used to trigger the agreed upon protocol. All the instruments and sensors currently offered by Roctest and its subsidiaries integrate seamlessly in the SHMLive solution, as do third party traditional electrical sensors.
This Web Seminar introduces the SHMLive service and demonstrate the functionalities of the new web interface and data transfer system.

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Webminar 06 (Tuesday, March 10, 2009)

Pipeline Leakage Detection and Localization using Distributed Fiber Optic Sensing

Distributed fiber optic sensing offers the ability to measure temperatures and strain at thousands of points along a single fiber. This is particularly interesting for the monitoring of pipelines, where it allows the detection and localization of leakages of much smaller volume than conventional software-based techniques. Sensing systems based on Brillouin and Raman scattering are used to detect and localize leakages in fluid, gas and multiphase pipelines, allowing the monitoring of hundreds of kilometers of pipeline with a single instrument and the localization of the leakage with a precision of 1 or 2 meters. Early applications of this technology have demonstrated that the design and production of sensing cables and their optimal location around the pipeline section are critical elements for the success of any distributed sensing instrumentation project. The seminar presents a number of significant field application examples of this technology as well as field tests with controlled leakages.

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Webminar 05 (Tuesday, March 10, 2009)

Integrated Bridge Health Monitoring System

This Web Seminar presents a generalized approach to the design of Bridge SHM monitoring systems combining multiple sensing technologies. The method will be illustrated by the example of an SHM system installed on a real bridge.

When designing a Bridge Health Monitoring system, one should always focus on the specific requirements of the structure under exam. The first step in the design process consists in identifying the probable degradation mechanism and the associated risks, in cooperation with the structure's owner and designer. Next, the expected responses to these degradations are established and an appropriate Structural Health Monitoring Systems is designed to detect such conditions. Only at this stage, the appropriate sensors are selected. Once the sensors are installed and verified, data collection can start. If these logical steps are followed and the monitoring data is correctly acquired and managed, data analysis and interpretation will be greatly simplified.

 

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Webminar 04 (Thursday, February 12, 2009)

Temperature and leakage detection in dams and levees

Seepage flow through the dams and their foundations is one of the most important indicators of dam safety. Temperature distributed sensing cable help engineers to identify concentrated leakage, which can quickly intensify and assume disastrous proportions. Leakage should be monitored frequently and the modern tendency is to measure it automatically in real time, with an alert system for abnormal increase.

 

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Webminar 03 (Tuesday, December 2, 2008)

Dynamic SHM - Introducing the "DyMon" software

This Seminar illustrates the new software application "DyMon" for dynamic monitoring using the MuSt system. The main characteristic of the MuSt dynamic reading units as well as the functioning principles and the main features of the DyMon software are presented.

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Webminar 02 (Monday, November 3, 2008)

Case studies presentation: I35W Bridge in Minneapolis and Punggol EC26 Building in Singapore

This webseminar presents two Case Studies on long-term monitoring of civil engineering structures: I-35W Bridge in Minneapolis (MN, USA) On Aug. 1, 2007 the I-35W Bridge over the Mississippi River in Minneapolis collapsed. The new bridge was opened 11.5 months later. Beside other sensor types, several vibrating wire, corrosion and fiber optic sensors were installed in the new bridge by Roctest/Smartec. All the data are collected and centralized in the SDB software. Monitoring of buildings in Singapore As part of quality assurance of new tall buildings, Singapore's public housing authority, HDB, decided to perform long-term monitoring in order to: increase the knowledge on the real structural behavior, control the construction, increase the safety, enhance maintenance and make possible evaluation of structural condition after risky events. Monitoring is implemented in large-scale on more than 200 buildings. A typical installation and 7 years results are presented and discussed.

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Webminar 01 (Tuesday, October 7, 2008)

Introducing SensCore: Reinforced Concrete Corrosion Monitoring System

This webseminar introduces the new SensCore Product line. The SensCore system is a wireless sensor network, designed to detect and predict the onset of steel corrosion in concrete. The system consists of sensors, dataloggers and a measurement hub that concentrates the data from several dataloggers and transmits it to a central database, where it can be accessed by the authorized users. The sensors are able to measure several parameters, which are critical to evaluate the present and future risk of rebar corrosion in concrete. In particular the corrosion current and the concrete humidity are measured at several depths between the concrete surface and the rebar depth, to analyze the progression of the corrosion front as well as evaluate the performance of hydrophobic coatings.

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