SHMLive Presentation

This video introduces SHMLive:

Roctest launches SHMLive

Roctest launches SHMLive structural health monitoring solution to improve the safety of major public and private infrastructure. Real-time monitoring service will alert owners of structural risks and enable them to deploy resources where they are most needed.

Roctest Ltd (“Roctest”) (TSX: RTT), a leading designer and manufacturer of high-precision sensors for the civil engineering market, today announced the launch of SHMLive, a new and innovative web-based solution to monitor the health and status of infrastructure projects. 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.

“SHMLive offers a choice that has not previously been available in the marketplace,” said François Cordeau, President and CEO, Roctest. “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. With SHMLive, they can achieve superior monitoring capability and ease of adoption, with more predictable impact on their budgets."

SHMLive deployments will make use of the full range of available monitoring technologies. With more than 60 years of experience instrumenting complex structures worldwide, Roctest is the only company that can seamlessly integrate traditional vibrating wire instruments, fiber optic based sensors using five different technologies, concrete corrosion sensors, and any type of electrical sensors into a fully automated data acquisition system and integrated database while displaying the data in real-time anywhere in the world through its secure web site www.shmlive.com .

SHMLive Description

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. 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.

SHMLive Benefits

A 2008 U.S. Department of Transportation report found that 24% of the nearly 600,000 U.S. bridges were structurally deficient or functionally obsolete. This classification is based on visual inspection only and cannot fully capture hidden structural defects or capacity reserves. To monitor these assets becomes an enormous task for any organization if one only considers the amount of data generated by the monitoring sensors. SHMLive will behave the same way as a regular house security system, providing an alert whenever unusual behaviour is detected. Being an exceptionbased system, SHMLive does not require an army of engineers to continuously monitor the data, allowing smaller organizations with less resource to finally provide surveillance of critical structures. The same benefits will apply in Europe and Asia where aging infrastructures are a fact of life. Roctest is partnering with certified engineering firms worldwide to provide value-added services; however, the owner can also select its preferred engineering firm to analyze its data and recommend actions.

By understanding the static and dynamic behaviour of a structure, the owner can set priorities for maintenance and repairs, resulting in improved safety for its users and, in many cases, safely extending the life of the infrastructure with limited or no interventions. For large organizations like Departments of Transportation (D.O.T.) in the U.S. responsible for thousands of structures, the ability to assess and extend the useful remaining life of a structure will result in positive Return on Investment (R.O.I.) by prioritising rehabilitation efforts and optimizing the associated maintenance budget.

In the case of a high-rise building, SHMLive will provide instantaneous feedback on its health following an earthquake. For aging underground infrastructures like parking lots and tunnels, SHMLive will detect, in real-time, minuscule movements indicative of more serious issues. For geotechnical applications, SHMLive will provide a simple and cost-effective means of distributing measurements and alerts to all stakeholders involved in a construction project.

By offering this service based for a monthly fixed fee, Roctest provides infrastructure owners an affordable way to monitor these assets compared with the large capital expenditure that has historically been required, resulting in additional flexibility for owners to monitor more structures.

“Roctest will also continue to offer its complete portfolio of products in the same way we have for the last 60 years, targeting the large civil engineering projects and the continued surveillance of infrastructures by providing custom solutions using standard products. SHMLive will complement our offering by providing a value-added option to our customers who prefer a turnkey solution. The new service will be offered by all Roctest Group companies, including Roctest, Smartec and Telemac,” concluded Francois Cordeau.

For more information on SHMLive, please visit www.shmlive.com .

Dr. Branko Glisic named Professor at Princeton University

The Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Princeton University announced the appointment of Dr. Branko Glisic as new assistant professor.

Branko joins Princeton University from SMARTEC SA, a Swiss company focused on structural health monitoring.  He joined SMARTEC in 2000, after receiving his PhD earlier that year from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology – Lausanne (EPFL).  Branko holds degrees in Civil Engineering (1994) and Theoretical Mathematics (1996), both from the University of Belgrade.  His research interests include sensing and structural health monitoring, and smart structures and materials.

[Princeton.edu]

SHM Professions

A student has asked me to point out which courses he should take, if he is interested in working in Structural Health Monitoring in the future.

SHM is a very multidisciplinary field that requires a close cooperation between professionals of different fields. A true SHM professional should therefore be a generalist, who knows enough about the different technologies and professions that revolve around SHM. This will enable him to interface to the specialist in each field and help them interact effectively in a specific SHM project. Another choice is to become a specialist in one of those fields and work as part of an SHM team.

Here is a list of professions and specialities that I consider as central for SHM.

Engineering

• Civil, Geotechnical, Aerospace, Structural, Automotive, Pipeline Engineering
• Theory of Materials
• Material Science
• Finite Element Analysis
• System Identification (data analysis)
• Risk Analysis

Measurement

• Data Acquisition Systems
• Sensors (electrical, fiber optics, piezo materials,...)
• Geodesy
• Fundamentals of Measurement Theory and Errors

Data

• Database Management
• Telecommunications
• Data Mining and Analysis
• Human Interface Design
• Web publishing

Business and People

• Business Administration
• Project Management
• Team Management

Welcome

Welcome to SHM Blog.

Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) is a process aimed at providing accurate and in-time information concerning structural condition and performance. This is obtained by installing a network of sensors on the structure and continuously observe its behavior. The information obtained from monitoring is used to plan and design maintenance activities, increase the safety, verify hypotheses, reduce uncertainty and to widen the knowledge concerning the structure being monitored. SHM concepts can be applied to a variety of structures, including bridges, buildings, dams, tunnels, pipelines, platforms, ships, aircrafts and vehicles.

In this blog, I will cover Structural Health Monitoring Technologies and Applications.

In particular I will report on relevant conferences and publications and report on interesting research and applications in this domain.

I will also discuss applications of SHM to different types of structures and provide examples from my professional experience in this field.

The SHM Blog will also report on industry news, product announcements and other corporate news.

I welcome any suggestion on how to make this Blog more useful for you.

Daniele Inaudi