TY - GEN A1 - Cheilakou, E. A1 - Tsopelas, N. A1 - Anastasopoulos, A. A1 - Kourousis, D. A1 - Rychkov, Dmitry A1 - Gerhard, Reimund A1 - Frankenstein, B. A1 - Amditis, A. A1 - Damigos, Y. A1 - Bouklas, C. T1 - Strain monitoring system for steel and concrete structures T2 - Procedia Structural Integrity N2 - The present work is part of a collaborative H2020 European funded research project called SENSKIN, that aims to improve Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) for transport infrastructure through the development of an innovative monitoring and management system for bridges based on a novel, inexpensive, skin-like sensor. The integrated SENSKIN technology will be implemented in the case of steel and concrete bridges, and tested, field-evaluated and benchmarked on actual bridge environment against a conventional health monitoring solution developed by Mistras Group Hellas. The main objective of the present work is to implement the autonomous, fully functional strain monitoring system based on commercially available off-the-shelf components, that will be used to accomplish direct comparison between the performance of the innovative SENSKIN sensors and the conventional strain sensors commonly used for structural monitoring of bridges. For this purpose, the mini Structural Monitoring System (mini SMS) of Physical Acoustics Corporation, a comprehensive data acquisition unit designed specifically for long-term unattended operation in outdoor environments, was selected. For the completion of the conventional system, appropriate foil-type strain sensors were selected, driven by special conditioners manufactured by Mistras Group. A comprehensive description of the strain monitoring system and its peripheral components is provided in this paper. For the evaluation of the integrated system’s performance and the effect of various parameters on the long-term behavior of sensors, several test steel pieces instrumented with different strain sensors configurations were prepared and tested in both laboratory and field ambient conditions. Furthermore, loading tests were performed aiming to validate the response of the system in monitoring the strains developed in steel beam elements subject to bending regimes. Representative results obtained from the above experimental tests have been included in this paper as well. KW - Structural health monitoring KW - strain sensors KW - strain gauges KW - bridges KW - steel and concrete structures Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.prostr.2018.09.005 SN - 2452-3216 VL - 10 SP - 25 EP - 32 PB - Elsevier CY - Amsterdam ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Laflamme, Simon A1 - Kollosche, Matthias A1 - Connor, Jerome J. A1 - Kofod, Guggi T1 - Robust flexible capacitive surface sensor for structural health monitoring applications JF - Journal of engineering mechanics N2 - Early detection of possible defects in civil infrastructure is vital to ensuring timely maintenance and extending structure life expectancy. The authors recently proposed a novel method for structural health monitoring based on soft capacitors. The sensor consisted of an off-the-shelf flexible capacitor that could be easily deployed over large surfaces, the main advantages being cost-effectiveness, easy installation, and allowing simple signal processing. In this paper, a capacitive sensor with tailored mechanical and electrical properties is presented, resulting in greatly improved robustness while retaining measurement sensitivity. The sensor is fabricated from a thermoplastic elastomer mixed with titanium dioxide and sandwiched between conductive composite electrodes. Experimental verifications conducted on wood and concrete specimens demonstrate the improved robustness, as well as the ability of the sensing method to diagnose and locate strain. KW - Strain gages KW - Structural health monitoring KW - Monitoring KW - Probe instruments KW - Strain gauge KW - Structural health monitoring KW - Strain monitoring KW - Capacitive sensor KW - Dielectric polymer KW - Stretchable sensor KW - Flexible membrane KW - Sensing skin Y1 - 2013 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)EM.1943-7889.0000530 SN - 0733-9399 SN - 1943-7889 VL - 139 IS - 7 SP - 879 EP - 885 PB - American Society of Civil Engineers CY - Reston ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Pilz, Marco A1 - Isken, Marius Paul A1 - Fleming, Kevin A1 - Orunbaev, Sagynbek A1 - Moldobekov, Bolot T1 - Long- and short-term monitoring of a dam in response to seasonal changes and ground motion loading BT - the test case of the Kurpsai Dam, Western Kyrgyz Republic JF - Pure and applied geophysics : PAGEOPH ; continuation of Geofisica pura e applicata N2 - An experimental multi-parameter structural monitoring system has been installed on the Kurpsai dam, western Kyrgyz Republic. This system consists of equipment for seismic and strain measurements for making longer- (days, weeks, months) and shorter- (minutes, hours) term observations, dealing with, for example seasonal (longer) effects or the response of the dam to ground motion from noise or seismic events. Fibre-optic strain sensors allow the seasonal and daily opening and closing of the spaces between the dam's segments to be tracked. For the seismic data, both amplitude (in terms of using differences in amplitudes in the Fourier spectra for mapping the modes of vibration of the dam) and their time-frequency distribution for a set of small to moderate seismic events are investigated and the corresponding phase variabilities (in terms of lagged coherency) are evaluated. Even for moderate levels of seismic-induced ground motion, some influence on the structural response can be detected, which then sees the dam quickly return to its original state. A seasonal component was identified in the strain measurements, while levels of noise arising from the operation of the dam's generators and associated water flow have been provisionally identified. KW - Structural health monitoring KW - Dam engineering KW - Operational and environmental effects KW - Strong-motion KW - Strain KW - Elastic response KW - Kurpsai dam Y1 - 2021 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1007/s00024-021-02861-5 SN - 0033-4553 SN - 1420-9136 VL - 178 IS - 10 SP - 4001 EP - 4020 PB - Birkhäuser CY - Basel ER -