Transportation infrastructure (roadways, bridges, bus stations, railways and railway stations, airports, inland waterways, seaports and pipelines) is essential to the efficient movement of people, goods and services. In the aftermath of manmade and natural disasters, it is important to evaluate the condition, serviceability and safety of transportation infrastructure systems and components. The traditional method of using visual inspection is time consuming, labor intensive and can lead to unreliable results, particularly in the extreme and often chaotic and/or dangerous conditions that exist after a hazard event. At best, this may delay emergency response and recovery following the hazard event (e.g., earthquakes, Hurricane Katrina), and at worst, it could lead to additional loss of life (e.g., the World Trade Center collapse).
The objective of this study is to investigate and/or develop a prototype system for monitoring the structural health of transportation infrastructure elements from a distance (remotely). This type of system can be used for both routine condition assessment and for rapidly evaluating the safety of structures after a catastrophic event. A structural health monitoring system incorporates technologies such as sensing, data acquisition, communications, numerical and analytical models, and evaluation and decision algorithms.
The sensors being used include strain gages (to determine stresses and forces), displacement sensors and tiltmeters to measure structural deformations, accelerometers to measure vibrations, and weather station sensors to measure ambient environmental conditions (wind speed and direction, temperature, relative humidity, etc).
