275 results about "Structural monitoring" patented technology

The invention relates bridge structure safety evaluation technology by means of combining vibration measuring and structural model analysis techniques for bridge erosion evaluation and pre-warning monitoring applications. This technology can also be applied for long-term bridge structure monitoring and safety evaluation as well as judgment and evaluation of rail structure abnormality.

The invention provides increased structural monitoring systems that have sensitive continuous coaxial cable sensors. A preferred embodiment sensor cable of the invention includes an inner conductor, a dielectric jacket, and an outer conductor that is configured to passively deform responsively to strain in an associated structure. The deformation can be aided by the physical structure of the dielectric jacket, the outer conductor, or a combination of both. The deformation translates strain into a measurable change in a reflection coefficient associated with the outer conductor.

A method and system for monitoring the integrity of a structure such as a building or a bridge includes taking accelerometer readings using an accelerometer and taking inclinometer readings using an inclinometer. The accelerometer and inclinometer each take readings in at least one axis, with one coincident axis between the two. The accelerometer readings are preferentially sampled at a higher rate than the inclinometer readings. Accelerometer readings verify inclinometer readings, and vice-versa. Using acceleration readings, it can be determined whether, when, and at what frequency inclination readings should be taken. The inclinometer can be powered down as long as accelerometer readings indicate that the environment would strain the inclinometer. Inclinometer readings can also be modified and corrected using inclinometer readings. Data accuracy and reliability are enhanced, and the overall integrity of a structure is dynamically monitored even as the structure and its environment change over time.

A method and apparatus for monitoring a structure using an optical fiber based distributed acoustic sensor (DAS) extending along the length of the structure. The DAS is able to resolve a separate acoustic signal with a spatial resolution of 1 m along the length of the fibre, and hence is able to operate with an acoustic positioning system to determine the position of the riser with the same spatial resolution. In addition, the fiber can at the same time also detect much lower frequency mechanical vibrations in the riser, for example such as resonant mode vibrations induced by movement in the surrounding medium. By using vibration detection in combination with acoustic positioning then overall structure shape monitoring can be undertaken, which is useful for vortex induced vibration (VIV) visualisation, fatigue analysis, and a variety of other advanced purposes. The structure may be a sub-sea riser.

The embodiment of the invention provides a subway subgrade structure monitoring method and device based on foundation InSAR. The method comprises the steps of using a radar sensor for repeatedly observing a target area on a linear scanning slide rail, and obtaining a synthetic aperture radar SAR image in about 10 seconds; matching image elements representing the same object in the target region inthe two SAR images to the same position, carrying out image registration; subjecting an interference image pair after image registration to conjugate multiplication (as shown in the description) to obtain an interference phase graph; carrying out noise filtering processing on the obtained coherent graph gamma; carrying out phase unwrapping on the coherent graph gamma subjected to noise filteringprocessing; carrying out atmospheric correction on the coherent image gamma subjected to phase unwrapping to obtain a deformation graph of the target area; carrying out geocoding on the deformation graph of the target area under the radar coordinate system, projecting to the geographic coordinate system, and obtaining a geographic coded deformation graph. High-precision and continuous deformationmonitoring of the whole area of the subway elevated and roadbed structure can be implemented under the extreme weather conditions or long distances (4Km) range.

The present invention provides the capability of ascertaining, through a quick and simple measurement, locations on a structure that may have experienced damage that could result in reduced structure lifetime, strength, or reliability. The sensing element is a connectorized section of polarization maintaining (“PM”) optical fiber, where a length of PM fiber represents a fully distributed sensor array. Stress-induced changes to the sensor are measured through white-light Polarimetric interferometry. The output of the measurement is a data array representing the stress concentration magnitude at an array of locations along the length of the sensor. In an application, the knowledge of the optical fiber position on the structure, coupled with the measurement of stress locations along the fiber length, allows the user to determine locations on the structure with large stress concentrations. These locations may signify structural damage. This knowledge would allow the user to employ a more sophisticated system, albeit a larger and slower one, to fully characterize and evaluate that area of potential damage and take appropriate action.

An internal structural monitoring system for a structure that includes a sensor mounted within the structure to measure at least one of strain experienced by the structure and vibration experience by the structure. It includes a first system support mounted and second system support mounted in the structure, where the first system and the second system support are mounted in the structure such that the sensor is between the first system support and the second system support to hold the sensor in position so that the sensor senses at least one of strain and vibration. It includes a wireless communication unit mounted within the structure, the wireless communication unit connected to the sensor to receive data from the sensor and transmit the data to a receiver outside the structure. It includes a power supply mounted within the structure to supply necessary electrical power to the sensor and the communication unit.

The present invention proposes a hardware and software architecture for dynamic modal structural monitoring that uses a robust modal filter to monitor a potentially very large-scale array of sensors in real time, and tolerant of asymmetric sensor noise and sensor failures, to achieve aircraft performance optimization such as minimizing aircraft flutter, drag and maximizing fuel efficiency.

The embodiment of the invention discloses a machine vision-based building structure crack detection and repair method, which includes: (1) building structure image acquisition by machinery equipment; (2) image feature value extraction; (3) monitored building stress analysis; (4) intelligent monitored building repair. The invention introduces machine vision into structure health monitoring to establish a real-time and high-efficiency intelligent detection and repair measure. The method can make up for certain deficiencies in structure health monitoring and promote the development of the structure health monitoring and repair field toward intelligentization, and the wavelet analysis method is used for extracting crack feature values. By carrying out finite element analysis on the extracted feature values, such as width and distribution range, the method can find out the relation between cracks and structure health and quantitatively classify the cracks, thus increasing the intelligentization degree of structure monitoring, and the method has profound significance for the development of building disaster prevention and mitigation and civil engineering toward intelligentization.

The invention discloses a cable structure monitoring method based on long gauge optical fiber grating sensors. The method comprises the following steps that a healthy monitoring system on the cable structure is laid out by utilizing a cable clamp, wherein the healthy monitoring system is composed of a plurality of long gauge optical fiber grating sensors arranged on the cable structure, and a strain signals monitored by the healthy monitoring system is collected through a signal collection system; an exciting hammer is adopted to hammer the node position where the cable structure lays out the long gauge optical fiber grating sensors; the signal collection system collects an impact signal and a long gauge strain time history in a vibration test; a system array based on an identification algorithm of a subsystem is identified, and multi-layered parameters of the cable structure is further identified; identification on cable force is conducted by utilizing identified frequency, and damage of the cable structure is identified and located according to identified formation and flexibility. According to the cable structure monitoring method based on the optical fiber grating sensors, the optical fiber grating sensors are applied to health monitoring of an inhaul cable, and thus stable and reliable monitoring means and method are provided for long-term monitoring and performance evaluation of the cable structure.

The invention relates to a composite structure (11) formed by a plurality of layers (13, 15, 17, 19, 21, 23) including an optical fiber (25) for structural monitoring purposes which is at least partly embedded in a surface layer (13) of said structure (11), and insulation means of the optical fiber (25) areas susceptible to repair with respect to the surface layer (13) in which they are integrated, particularly a protective cover (27) and top and bottom separating films (31, 33), and a process of repairing said areas comprising the following steps: removing the protective cover (27) and the top separating film (31), extracting the area, repairing the optical fiber, relocating the area and providing a new protective cover (27).

System for assisting the driving of a ship, configured to estimate the structural loads of the ship due to the direct wave excitation, and structural loads of the ship due to the whipping effect caused by the wave slamming. The system includes at least one reference sensor (40') adapted to provide an indication of a motion or stress magnitude at a predetermined point of the ship structure, and is further configured to calculate an estimate of said magnitude at the predetermined point in the ship structure, compare said indication of magnitude with the estimate of said magnitude so as to determine an offset value, and correct the estimates of the structural loads and/or the estimate of said magnitude on the basis of said offset value.

A non-destructive testing method to evaluate the structural integrity of pre-stressed concrete railroad ties in track to identify deterioration and the eventual loss of bond between the reinforcing wires and the surrounding concrete. The application of an impact echo system to the end of each railroad tie will identify ties that have deteriorated to the extent that structural cracks have formed. The method includes employing a tool having a plurality of transducers and a single impinger to impart sound waves through a top surface of the railroad tie and to receive and evaluate the echoes of the sound waves to determine if the tie is structurally sound or structurally unsound.

The invention relates to a composite structure (11) formed by a plurality of layers (13, 15, 17, 19, 21, 23) including an optical fiber (25) for structural monitoring purposes which is at least partly embedded in said structure (11), incorporating a protective cover (27) in those areas of its embedded part susceptible to needing repair, and to a process for repairing said embedded optical fiber comprising the following steps: identifying the optical fiber area in need of repair, removing material until reaching the cover (27), extracting said area, removing the protective cover (27), repairing the optical fiber (25), relocating the repaired area in the structure and returning the removed material.

The invention provides an ultrasonic wave based underground personnel positioning and structure monitoring integrated method. The method is characterized in that ultrasonic wave positioning nodes discover personnel objects by monitoring frequency band ultrasonic wave signals and achieve communications with mobile terminals via the ultrasonic wave signals with communication frequency bands after discovering the objects; the mobile terminals send corresponding identification codes to the ultrasonic wave positioning nodes in response operating processes; the ultrasonic wave positioning nodes send the identification codes to an upper computer after receiving the identification codes; and the upper computer completes positioning and identification of the underground personnel according to the established positions of the ultrasonic wave positioning nodes and the identification codes. The method has the beneficial technical effects that monitoring, positioning and identification of the underground personnel are achieved by utilizing the ultrasonic wave signals, thus solving the problem that electromagnetic wave based positioning systems have low positioning precision; and meanwhile, the structure deformation online monitoring functions are integrated, and synchronous positioning and real-time monitoring of multipoint personnel and structures are supported.

The invention discloses a bridge disease inspection management system, and relates to the technical field of bridge structure monitoring. The system comprises RFID tags installed to positions of bridge members; a mobile inspection terminal, for entering basic information for the bridge members and inspection information, and for identifying the RFID tags on the bridge members; and a server, connected with the mobile inspection terminal, provided internally with a backstage management module, and used for storing and analyzing the basic information of the bridge members and the inspection information that are uploaded by the mobile inspection terminal. According to the invention, the mobile inspection terminal identifies and inspects the RFID tags and uploads the inspection information to the server, the server stores and analyzes the uploaded inspection information, the intelligent, informationized and standardized inspection of bridge diseases is achieved, and the mobile inspection terminal is simple in structure, easy to carry and easy to operate.

A system for the structural monitoring of blades 1 on a wind turbine. Each blade 1 has respective optical fibre bragg grating sensors 5. The system has a number of input connectors, which connect to the strain sensors 5 of respective blades 1. A single output connector connects to a data processing device 3 which processes signals from the strain sensors 5. The input connectors each have a signal path to the output connector that is different in length to the signal path from the other input connectors, such that signals from a given blade 1 can be identified at the data processing device 3 by the time of arrival of the signals. The system has the advantage that the each of the blades 1, including the sensors attached to it or embedded within it can be identical and therefore interchangeable.

The invention relates to a bridge cross connection real-time assessment method based on the stress proportion. The method comprises the steps of obtaining stress values of a midspan beam bottom through a stress sensor in real time, calculating the actually-measured stress proportion of each beam, taking the actually-measured stress proportion as stress proportion actually-measured values, utilizing a numerical simulation technology for damage simulation, obtaining the change tendency and range of the stress proportion of the beams when different cross-connection parts are damaged in varying degrees under the health state, taking the change tendency and range of the stress proportion as the stress proportion calculating values, comparing actually-measured values with the calculating values, and therefore identifying the cross connection damage of the structure. The method has the advantages that a fiber bragg grating stress monitoring system is combined, so that the monitoring precision is greatly improved, according to the stress proportion index, the false alarm rate is low, the real-time structural health assessment is provided, and the structure monitoring continuity is good. Compared with a traditional structure health assessment means, a static load test is not required, normal traffic is not disturbed, cost is low, precision is high, real time performance is good, and the method is suitable for monitoring various small and medium-sized span fabricated bridges.