Webinar Overview
Ultra-low Power Wireless Sensing System for Multi-metric Self-Powered Monitoring of Bridge and Pavement Structures
The field of Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) is of great interest worldwide because of its potential capability to provide cost-effective, autonomous, continuous, and reliable condition assessment and damage detection in civil infrastructure systems. However, in spite of the fact that numerous researchers throughout the world have devoted, and continue to devote, considerable effort to investigate and resolve the technical issues that underpin the SHM methodology, there are still major hurdles that need further study and resolution in order to achieve and exploit the full potential of the SHM field when applied to full-scale structures under realistic field conditions. Among the most serious challenges that have hampered the practical application of the field of SHM for damage detection in extended structures such as bridges and pavements, is the infeasibility of using a sufficient number of conventional sensors to provide a high-enough spatial resolution so as to capture changes in the structure that may be precursors to serious structural damage.
Additionally, there is a need for robust energy sources to drive the sensors and associated data acquisition network. Therefore, currently there exists a wide gap between the energy that can be scavenged from real-world structures and the energy density required for sensing, computing and communication. This major impediment to practical application of SHM to bridge systems has been partially resolved by the recently developed Michigan State University’s (MSU) self-powered sensors. Prototypes tailored for strain sensing have been developed and tested as part of several projects funded by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA - DTFH61-08-C-00015, DTFH61-13-C-00015, and DTFH61-13-H-00009).
The sensing technology that will be discussed in this presentation offers several novel features which are not available in other classical SHM methods including: low power requirements (~80 nW); self-powered continuous sensing; possibility of deployment in dense networks; autonomous computation and non-volatile storage; wireless communication and low cost.
Presenter
Dr. Nizar Lajnef
Associate Professor of Civil Engineering, Michigan State University
Dr. Nizar Lajnef is an associate professor of civil engineering at Michigan State University. His current research activities include sensors design for structural health and usage monitoring, damage detection algorithms with application to civil, mechanical and biomechanical structures, nano-watt and self-powered sensors, and smart materials/composites/alloys and systems. He holds two patents in the area of sensor design, and has submitted three patents on advanced material designs. Dr. Lajnef is the author of more than fifty publications in the area of sensors design and energy harvesting. He was a recipient of the Lilly Teaching Fellowship in 2012 and the Nothstine fellowship in 2007. Dr. Lajnef is a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), and serves on the Energy Harvesting committee for the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME).
