Tzuyang Yu

Structural health monitoring of bridges using digital image correlation

Due to the aging global civil infrastructure (e.g. bridges), there is a critical need for monitoring and assessing structural integrity of large scale structures. According to the ASCE, in 2008, the average bridge in the U.S.A. was 43 years old and 161,892 bridges were structurally deficient or obsolete. Currently, bridge health is assessed primarily using qualitative visual inspection, which is not always reliable because some damage is difficult to detect, quantify visually, or is subject to human interpretation. Traditional sensors such as strain gages, and displacement sensors, have been recently used to monitor bridges. These sensors only measure at discrete points or along a line, making it difficult to detect damage that is not in the immediate vicinity of the sensor or is difficult to interpret. To address these issues, this paper investigates the use of three-dimensional (3D) digital image correlation (DIC) as a sensing approach for improved bridge structural health monitoring. 3D DIC is a non-contact, full field, optical measuring technique that uses digital cameras to measure surface geometry, displacement, and strain. It is proposed that DIC can be used for monitoring by imaging a bridge periodically and computing strain and displacement from images recorded at different dates or operating conditions. In this paper, DIC is shown to locate non-visible cracks in concrete, quantify spalling, and measure bridge deformation. These techniques are first demonstrated in the laboratory. Field measurements are also made on three full-scale bridges. This paper discusses challenges and solutions to implementing DIC on large structures in the field. The results reveal that DIC is an effective approach to monitor the integrity of large scale civil infrastructure.

Retrieval of marine water constituents from AVIRIS data in the Hudson/Raritan Estuary

This paper reports on the validation of bio‐optical models in estuarine and nearshore (case 2) waters of New Jersey–New York to retrieve accurate water leaving radiance spectra and chlorophyll concentration from the NASA Airborne Visible Infrared Imaging Spectrometer (AVIRIS) data complemented with in situ measurements. The study area—Hudson/Raritan Estuary—is a complex estuarine system where tidal and wind‐driven currents are modified by freshwater discharges from the Hudson, Raritan, Hackensack, and Passaic rivers. Over the last century the estuarine water quality has degraded, in part due to eutrophication, which has disrupted the pre‐existing natural balance, resulting in phytoplankton blooms of both increased frequency and intensity, increasing oxygen demand and leading to episodes of hypoxia. During 1999–2001 data acquisitions by NASA AVIRIS field measurements were obtained to establish hydrological optical properties of the Hudson/Raritan Estuary: (1) concurrent above‐ and below‐surface spectral irradiance; (2) sampling for laboratory determination of inherent optical properties; and (3) concentrations of optically‐important water quality parameters. We used a bio‐optical model based on Gordon et al. to predict the sub‐surface irradiance reflectance from optically important water constituents. Modelling of reflectance is a prerequisite for processing remote sensing data to desired thematic maps for input into the geographical information system (GIS) for use as a management tool in water quality assessment. A Radiative Transfer Code—MODTRAN‐4—was applied to remove the effects of the atmosphere so as to infer the water leaving radiance from the AVIRS data. The results of this procedure were not satisfactory, therefore an alternative approach was tested to directly correct the AVIRIS image using modelled spectra based on measured optical characteristics. The atmospherically corrected AVIRIS ratio image was used to calculate a thematic map of water quality parameters (i.e. chlorophyll‐a) concentration, which subsequently were integrated into a GIS for management of water quality purposes.

Recent Theory and Applications on Inverse Problems 2014

1Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Izmir Institute of Technology, Gulbahce-Urla, 35430 Izmir, Turkey 2Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Dokuz Eylul University, 35160 Izmir, Turkey 3Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Mersin University, 33343 Mersin, Turkey 4Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Massachusetts Lowell, Lowell, MA 01854-2827, USA 5Department of Mathematics, University of Reading, Whiteknights, P.O. Box 220, Reading RG6 6AX, UK 6German Meteorological Service, Deutscher Wetterdienst Research and Development, Head Division FE 12 (Data Assimilation), Frankfurter Strasse 135, 63067 Offenbach, Germany

Damage inspection of fiber reinforced polymer-concrete systems using a distant acoustic-laser NDE technique

In this paper, a distant acoustic-laser NDE technique is proposed, utilizing a high powered standoff parametric acoustic array (PAA) and laser Doppler vibrometry (LDV), for the detection of debonding and delamination in multi-layer composite systems. Fiber-reinforced polymer wrapped concrete cylinder specimens with artificial defect were manufactured and used in the validation of the technique. Low-frequency (50 Hz 2 kHz) and highfrequency (2 kHz 7 kHz) focused sound waves were generated by PAA, and surface dynamic signatures of the specimens were remotely measured by LDV. From the results it is found that the proposed technique successfully captures the presence of near-surface debonding/delamination.

An autonomous unmanned aerial vehicle sensing system for structural health monitoring of bridges

As civil infrastructure (i.e. bridges, railways, and tunnels) continues to age; the frequency and need to perform inspection more quickly on a broader scale increases. Traditional inspection and monitoring techniques (e.g., visual inspection, mechanical sounding, rebound hammer, cover meter, electrical potential measurements, ultrasound, and ground penetrating radar) may produce inconsistent results, require lane closure, are labor intensive and time-consuming. Therefore, new structural health monitoring systems must be developed that are automated, highly accurate, minimally invasive, and cost effective. Three-dimensional (3D) digital image correlation (DIC) systems have the merits of extracting full-field strain, deformation, and geometry profiles. These profiles can then be stitched together to generate a complete integrity map of the area of interest. Concurrently, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have emerged as valuable resources for positioning sensing equipment where it is either difficult to measure or poses a risk to human safety. UAVs have the capability to expedite the optical-based measurement process, offer increased accessibility, and reduce interference with local traffic. Within this work, an autonomous unmanned aerial vehicle in conjunction with 3D DIC was developed for monitoring bridges. The capabilities of the proposed system are demonstrated in both laboratory measurements and data collected from bridges currently in service. Potential measurement influences from platform instability, rotor vibration and positioning inaccuracy are also studied in a controlled environment. The results of these experiments show that the combination of autonomous flight with 3D DIC and other non-contact measurement systems provides a valuable and effective civil inspection platform.

Synthesis of Photoswitchable Magnetic Au-Fullerosome Hybrid Nanomaterials for Permittivity Enhancement Applications

We designed and synthesized several nanomaterials 3 of three-layered core-shell (γ-FeOx@AuNP)@[C60(>DPAF-C9)1or2]n nanoparticles (NPs). These NPs having e−-polarizable fullerosome structures located at the outer layer were fabricated from highly magnetic core-shell γ-FeOx@AuNPs. Fullerosomic polarization of 3 was found to be capable of causing a large amplification of material permittivity that is also associated with the photoswitching effect in the frequency range of 0.5‒4.0 GHz. Multilayered synthetic construction allows Förster resonance energy transfer (FRET) of photoinduced accumulative surface plasmon resonance (SPR) energy in the gold layer to the partially bilayered C60(>DPAF-C9)1or2-derived fullerosome membrane shell layer in a near-field of direct contact without producing radiation heat, which is commonly associated with SPR.

Miniature fiber optic temperature sensor for concrete structural health monitoring

This paper presents a miniature fiber optic temperature sensor and its application in concrete structural health monitoring. The temperature sensor is based on Fabry-Perot (FP) principle. The endface of the fiber was wet etched. A piece of borosilicate glass was thermally deposited into the cavity on the etched endface to form an FP cavity. Temperature calibration experiments were performed. A sensor with 30 μm microcavity length was demonstrated to have a sensitivity of 0.006 nm/°C and linearity coefficient of 0.99. During the early-age of concreting, the sensor was embedded in the concrete structure to monitor the temperature change caused by the exothermic chemical reaction between the cement and water. The dramatically increased temperature inside the structure was directly related to its future structural health. During the concrete hydration experiment, the measured peak temperature of concrete specimens was 59.7 °C 12.5 hour after concrete casting.

Quantitative Assessment of CFRP-concrete Cylinders Using Synthetic Aperture Radar Images

ABSTRACT A feature extraction algorithm is proposed to quantitatively assess the condition of intact and damaged carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP)-wrapped concrete cylinders using synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images. The proposed algorithm converts SAR images into a simplified representation, based on the shape, size, and amplitude of SAR images. In this approach, the shape of scatterers in a SAR image is characterized by average Gaussian curvature (K), area ratio (R), and SAR amplitude (I), and is represented by a K-R-I curve. SAR images of intact and damaged CFRP-wrapped concrete cylinders were generated by a stripmap SAR imaging radar system (10.5 GHz) at various inspection angles (0°, 15°, 25°, 30°, 45°, and 60°). From our experimental result, it is found that the K-R-I representation of SAR images is capable of distinguishing damaged SAR images from intact ones at different inspection angles. Quantitative dissimilarity between the K-R-I curves of intact and damaged specimens is assessed by coefficient of correlation and compared with the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of SAR images. It is found that the dissimilarity of K-R-I curves is closely related to the SNR of SAR images, demonstrating the feasibility and potential of the proposed K-R-I representation.

All-Optical Photoacoustic Sensors for Steel Rebar Corrosion Monitoring

This article presents an application of an active all-optical photoacoustic sensing system with four elements for steel rebar corrosion monitoring. The sensor utilized a photoacoustic mechanism of gold nanocomposites to generate 8 MHz broadband ultrasound pulses in 0.4 mm compact space. A nanosecond 532 nm pulsed laser and 400 μm multimode fiber were employed to incite an ultrasound reaction. The fiber Bragg gratings were used as distributed ultrasound detectors. Accelerated corrosion testing was applied to four sections of a single steel rebar with four different corrosion degrees. Our results demonstrated that the mass loss of steel rebar displayed an exponential growth with ultrasound frequency shifts. The sensitivity of the sensing system was such that 0.175 MHz central frequency reduction corresponded to 0.02 g mass loss of steel rebar corrosion. It was proved that the all-optical photoacoustic sensing system can actively evaluate the corrosion of steel rebar via ultrasound spectrum. This multipoint all-optical photoacoustic method is promising for embedment into a concrete structure for distributed corrosion monitoring.

Finite element simulation of photoacoustic fiber optic sensors for surface corrosion detection on a steel rod

Structural steel members have become integral components in the construction of civil engineering infrastructures such as bridges, stadiums, and shopping centers due to versatility of steel. Owing to the uniqueness in the design and construction of steel structures, rigorous non-destructive evaluation techniques are needed during construction and operation processes to prevent the loss of human lives and properties. This research aims at investigating the application of photoacoustic fiber optic transducers (FOT) for detecting surface rust of a steel rod. Surface ultrasonic waves propagation in intact and corroded steel rods was simulated using finite element method (FEM). Radial displacements were collected and short-time Fourier transform (STFT) was applied to obtain the spectrogram. It was found that the presence of surface rust between the FOT and the receiver can be detected in both time and frequency domain. In addition, spectrogram can be used to locate and quantify surface rust. Furthermore, a surface rust detection algorithm utilizing the FOT has been proposed for detection, location and quantification of the surface rust.