• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.485-500
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• 2016

Stay cables in some cable-stayed bridges suffer large amplitude vibrations under the simultaneous occurrence of rain and wind. This phenomenon is called rain-wind-induced vibration (RWIV). The upper rivulet oscillating circumferentially on the inclined cable surface plays an important role in this phenomenon. However, its small size and high sensitivity to wind flow make measuring rivulet size and its movement challenging. Moreover, the distribution of the rivulet along the entire cable has not been measured. This paper applies the videogrammetric technique to measure the movement and geometry dimension of the upper rivulet along the entire cable during RWIV. A cable model is tested in an open-jet wind tunnel with artificial rain. RWIV is successfully reproduced. Only one digital video camera is employed and installed on the cable during the experiment. The camera records video clips of the upper rivulet and cable movements. The video clips are then transferred into a series of images, from which the positions of the cable and the upper rivulet at each time instant are identified by image processing. The thickness of the upper rivulet is also estimated. The oscillation amplitude, equilibrium position, and dominant frequency of the rivulet are presented. The relationship between cable and rivulet variations is also investigated. Results demonstrate that this non-contact, non-intrusive measurement method has good resolution and is cost effective.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.569-584
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• 2016

This paper presents a method for stochastic modelling of fatigue crack growth and optimising inspection and maintenance strategy for the structural members of steel bridges. The fatigue crack evolution is considered as a stochastic process with uncertainties, and the Gamma process is adopted to simulate the propagation of fatigue crack in steel bridge members. From the stochastic modelling for fatigue crack growth, the probability of failure caused by fatigue is predicted over the service life of steel bridge members. The remaining fatigue life of steel bridge members is determined by comparing the fatigue crack length with its predetermined threshold. Furthermore, the probability of detection is adopted to consider the uncertainties in detecting fatigue crack by using existing damage detection techniques. A multi-objective optimisation problem is proposed and solved by a genetic algorithm to determine the optimised inspection and maintenance strategy for the fatigue affected steel bridge members. The optimised strategy is achieved by minimizing the life-cycle cost, including the inspection, maintenance and failure costs, and maximizing the service life after necessary intervention. The number of intervention during the service life is also taken into account to investigate the relationship between the service life and the cost for maintenance. The results from numerical examples show that the proposed method can provide a useful approach for cost-effective inspection and maintenance strategy for fatigue affected steel bridges.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.405-423
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• 2016

In this study, the feasibility of using telecommunication single-mode optical fiber (SMF) as a distributed fiber optic strain and crack sensor was evaluated in concrete pavement monitoring. Tensile tests on various sensors indicated that the $SMF-28e^+$ fiber revealed linear elastic behavior to rupture at approximately 26 N load and 2.6% strain. Six full-scale concrete panels were prepared and tested under truck and three-point loads to quantify the performance of sensors with pulse pre-pump Brillouin optical time domain analysis (PPP-BOTDA). The sensors were protected by precast mortar from brutal action during concrete casting. Once air-cured for 2 hours after initial setting, half a mortar cylinder of 12 mm in diameter ensured that the protected sensors remained functional during and after concrete casting. The strains measured from PPP-BOTDA with a sensitivity coefficient of $5.43{\times}10^{-5}GHz/{\mu}{\varepsilon}$ were validated locally by commercial fiber Bragg grating (FBG) sensors. Unlike the point FBG sensors, the distributed PPP-BOTDA sensors can be utilized to effectively locate multiple cracks. Depending on their layout, the distributed sensors can provide one- or two-dimensional strain fields in pavement panels. The width of both micro and major cracks can be linearly related to the peak strain directly measured with the distributed fiber optic sensor.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.601-623
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• 2016

Precast concrete elements are widely used in the construction of buildings and civil infrastructures as they provide higher construction quality and requires less construction time. However, any abnormalities in precast concrete surfaces such as non-flatness or distortion, can influence the erection of the elements as well as the functional performance of the connections between elements. Thus, it is important to undertake surface flatness and distortion inspection (SFDI) on precast concrete elements before their delivery to the construction sites. The traditional methods of SFDI which are conducted manually or by contact-type devices are, however, time-consuming, labor-intensive and error-prone. To tackle these problems, this study proposes techniques for SFDI of precast concrete elements using laser scanning technology. The proposed techniques estimate the $F_F$ number to evaluate the surface flatness, and estimate three different measurements, warping, bowing, and differential elevation between adjacent elements, to evaluate the surface distortion. The proposed techniques were validated by experiments on four small scale test specimens manufactured by a 3D printer. The measured surface flatness and distortion from the laser scanned data were compared to the actual ones, which were obtained from the designed surface geometries of the specimens. The validation experiments show that the proposed techniques can evaluate the surface flatness and distortion effectively and accurately. Furthermore, scanning experiments on two actual precast concrete bridge deck panels were conducted and the proposed techniques were successfully applied to the scanned data of the panels.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.7 no.5
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• pp.379-392
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• 2011

This paper presents a multi-functional system, consisting of a magnetorheological (MR) damper and an electromagnetic induction (EMI) device, and its applications in stay cables. The proposed system is capable of offering multiple functions: (1) mitigating excessive vibrations of cables, (2) estimating cable tension, and (3) harvesting energy for wireless sensors used health monitoring of cable-stayed bridges. In the proposed system, the EMI device, consisting of permanent magnets and a solenoid coil, can converts vibration energy into electrical energy (i.e., induced emf); hence, it acts as an energy harvesting system. Moreover, the cable tension can be estimated by using the emf signals obtained from the EMI device. In addition, the MR damper, whose damping property is controlled by the harvested energy from the EMI device, can effectively reduce excessive cable vibrations. In this study, the multi-functionality of the proposed system is experimentally evaluated by conducting a shaking table test as well as a full-scale stay cable in a laboratory setting. In the shaking table experiment, the energy harvesting capability of the EMI device for wireless sensor nodes is investigated. The performance on the cable tension estimation and the vibration mitigation are evaluated using the full-scale cable test setup. The test results show that the proposed system can sufficiently generate and store the electricity for operating a wireless sensor node twice per day, significantly alleviate vibration of a stay cable (by providing about 20% larger damping compared to the passive optimal case), and estimate the cable tension accurately within a 2.5% error.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.9 no.6
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• pp.505-534
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• 2012

The present work deals with second order statistics of post buckling response of piezoelectric laminated composite cylindrical shell panel subjected to hygro-thermo-electro-mechanical loading with random system properties. System parameters such as the material properties, thermal expansion coefficients and lamina plate thickness are assumed to be independent of the temperature and electric field and modeled as random variables. The piezoelectric material is used in the forms of layers surface bonded on the layers of laminated composite shell panel. The mathematical formulation is based on higher order shear deformation shell theory (HSDT) with von-Karman nonlinear kinematics. A efficient $C^0$ nonlinear finite element method based on direct iterative procedure in conjunction with a first order perturbation approach (FOPT) is developed for the implementation of the proposed problems in random environment and is employed to evaluate the second order statistics (mean and variance) of the post buckling load of piezoelectric laminated cylindrical shell panel. Typical numerical results are presented to examine the effect of various environmental conditions, amplitude ratios, electrical voltages, panel side to thickness ratios, aspect ratios, boundary conditions, curvature to side ratios, lamination schemes and types of loadings with random system properties. It is observed that the piezoelectric effect has a significant influence on the stochastic post buckling response of composite shell panel under various loading conditions and some new results are presented to demonstrate the applications of present work. The results obtained using the present solution approach is validated with those results available in the literature and also with independent Monte Carlo Simulation (MCS).

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.7 no.4
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• pp.241-262
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• 2011

Cast iron pipe has been used as a water distribution technology in North America since the early nineteenth century. The first cast iron pipes were made of grey cast iron which was succeeded by ductile iron as a pipe material in the 1940s. These different iron alloys have significantly different microstructures which give rise to distinct mechanical properties. Insight into the non-destructive structural condition assessment of aging pipes can be advantageous in developing mitigation strategies for pipe failures. This paper examines the relationship between the small-strain and large-strain properties of exhumed cast iron water pipes. Nondestructive and destructive testing programs were performed on eight pipes varying in age from 40 to 130 years. The experimental program included microstructure evaluation and ultrasonic, tensile, and flexural testing. New applications of frequency domain analysis techniques including Fourier and wavelet transforms of ultrasonic pulse velocity measurements are presented. A low correlation between wave propagation and large-strain measurements was observed. However, the wave velocities were consistently different between ductile and grey cast iron pipes (14% to 18% difference); the ductile iron pipes showed the smaller variation in wave velocities. Thus, the variation of elastic properties for ductile iron was not enough to define a linear correlation because all the measurements were practically concentrated in single cluster of points. The cross-sectional areas of the specimens tested varied as a result of minor manufacturing defects and levels of corrosion. These variations affect the large strain testing results; but, surface defects have limited effect on wave velocities and may also contribute to the low correlations observed. Lamb waves are typically not considered in the evaluation of ultrasonic pulse velocity. However, Lamb waves were found to contribute significantly to the frequency content of the ultrasonic signals possibly resulting in the poor correlations observed. Therefore, correlations between wave velocities and large strain properties obtained using specimens manufactured in the laboratory must be used with caution in the condition assessment of aged water pipes especially for grey cast iron pipes.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.6 no.5_6
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• pp.749-765
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• 2010

There are on-going efforts to utilize guided waves for structural damage detection. Active sensing devices such as lead zirconate titanate (PZT) have been widely used for guided wave generation and sensing. In addition, there has been increasing interest in adopting wireless sensing to structural health monitoring (SHM) applications. One of major challenges in wireless SHM is to secure power necessary to operate the wireless sensors. However, because active sensing devices demand relatively high electric power compared to conventional passive sensors such as accelerometers and strain gauges, existing battery technologies may not be suitable for long-term operation of the active sensing devices. To tackle this problem, a new wireless power transmission paradigm has been developed in this study. The proposed technique wirelessly transmits power necessary for PZT-based guided wave generation using laser and optoelectronic devices. First, a desired waveform is generated and the intensity of the laser source is modulated accordingly using an electro-optic modulator (EOM). Next, the modulated laser is wirelessly transmitted to a photodiode connected to a PZT. Then, the photodiode converts the transmitted light into an electric signal and excites the PZT to generate guided waves on the structure where the PZT is attached to. Finally, the corresponding response from the sensing PZT is measured. The feasibility of the proposed method for wireless guided wave generation has been experimentally demonstrated.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.6 no.5_6
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• pp.731-748
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• 2010

Impact detection and health monitoring are very important tasks for civil infrastructures, such as bridges. Piezoceramic based transducers are widely researched for these tasks due to the piezoceramic material's inherent advantages of dual sensing and actuation ability, which enables the active sensing method for structural health monitoring with a network of piezoceramic transducers. Wireless sensor networks, which are easy for deployment, have great potential in health monitoring systems for large civil infrastructures to identify early-age damages. However, most commercial wireless sensor networks are general purpose and may not be optimized for a network of piezoceramic based transducers. Wireless networks of piezoceramic transducers for active sensing have special requirements, such as relatively high sampling rate (at a few-thousand Hz), incorporation of an amplifier for the piezoceramic element for actuation, and low energy consumption for actuation. In this paper, a wireless network is specially designed for piezoceramic transducers to implement impact detection and active sensing for structural health monitoring. A power efficient embedded system is designed to form the wireless sensor network that is capable of high sampling rate. A 32 bit RISC wireless microcontroller is chosen as the main processor. Detailed design of the hardware system and software system of the wireless sensor network is presented in this paper. To verify the functionality of the wireless sensor network, it is deployed on a two-story concrete frame with embedded piezoceramic transducers, and the active sensing property of piezoceramic material is used to detect the damage in the structure. Experimental results show that the wireless sensor network can effectively implement active sensing and impact detection with high sampling rate while maintaining low power consumption by performing offline data processing and minimizing wireless communication.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.6 no.5_6
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• pp.595-618
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• 2010

This paper describes the application of a wireless sensor network to a 31 meter-tall medieval tower located in the city of Trento, Italy. The effort is motivated by preservation of the integrity of a set of frescoes decorating the room on the second floor, representing one of most important International Gothic artworks in Europe. The specific application demanded development of customized hardware and software. The wireless module selected as the core platform allows reliable wireless communication at low cost with a long service life. Sensors include accelerometers, deformation gauges, and thermometers. A multi-hop data collection protocol was applied in the software to improve the system's flexibility and scalability. The system has been operating since September 2008, and in recent months the data loss ratio was estimated as less than 0.01%. The data acquired so far are in agreement with the prediction resulting a priori from the 3-dimensional FEM. Based on these data a Bayesian updating procedure is employed to real-time estimate the probability of abnormal condition states. This first period of operation demonstrated the stability and reliability of the system, and its ability to recognize any possible occurrence of abnormal conditions that could jeopardize the integrity of the frescos.