Scalable sensor technologies augmenting bridge network decisions

• Thursday 24 April
• from 10.45
• 4th floor kitchen, Science East
• (opens in a new window)Zoom

Earth Institute coffee morning research talk with Dr Ekin Ozer, UCD School of Civil Engineering. Bridge functional features within natural disasters are interconnected, and numerous challenges exist to fully understand their role in the process. Bridge functional features depend on I) their physical integrity (conditions) and II) their location, which connects the evacuees with emergency services with a dependence on their collective systemic behaviour.

When bridges fail, the transportation network gets disrupted, and the infrastructure system cannot optimally support post-disaster processes. Bridge networks can be mathematically modeled, but specifying individual bridge reliabilities in a realistic environment is difficult to achieve due to the size and complexity of bridge mechanics and geospatially distributed hazards.

This research first lays out the bridge health - vibration data relationship and then attempts to utilize a low-cost approach to calibrate a complete set of bridge models of a real transportation network through smartphone vibration samples. The proposed framework then uses the calibrated bridge models to estimate systemic bridge reliability and their joint behavior with health infrastructure access to a remote vicinity with evacuation needs.

While a network-scale bridge model updating framework might be difficult to achieve with traditional structural health monitoring approaches (dedicated and scientific-grade instrumentation), smartphone sensing comes with low to zero cost/expertise with minimal administration needs, which can propose a sustainable complement to better understand complex brige network behaviours with real physical evidence from smartphone readings.

Join us each Thursday morning from 10.45am to hear about new environmental, climate and sustainability research and initiatives, from UCD and beyond. Live in the Institute kitchen, 4th floor UCD Science East and on Zoom – all welcome!