2020 Webinar Series
NON-CONTACT AIR-COUPLED SENSING FOR RAPID EVALUATION OF BRIDGE DECKS
Presented: March 12, 2020, 11:00 AM Central Time
Speaker: Dr. Jinying Zhu, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
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ABSTRACT
Elastic wave-based non-destructive testing (NDT) methods are commonly used for evaluation of civil engineering infrastructure, including bridges, dams and buildings. However, most of these methods require coupling (direct contact) between sensors and the test surface, which significantly restricts the testing speed and consistency, especially for large scale concrete structures in civil engineering. The air-coupled sensing technology was developed by Dr. Jinying Zhu as a solution for rapid scanning of concrete infrastructure. In this webinar, Dr. Zhu will review the development of air-coupled sensing technique for civil engineering applications, including fundamental theory and field application of air-coupled sensing on concrete structures. She will also present a recently developed automated acoustic scanning system for quick bridge deck evaluation and imaging.
SPEAKER
Dr. Jinying Zhu is an associate professor in Department of Civil Engineering at the University of Nebraska Lincoln. She received her Ph.D. degree in civil Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2006. Her research interests include NDT for concrete, wave propagation, cement material characterization using ultrasonic waves, and innovative sensing techniques. Dr. Zhu is a recipient of the ASNT Fellowship Award in 2012, and four times winner of ACI-James Instruments Award. She is an associate editor of Journal of Nondestructive Evaluation.
Mobile Manipulating Drones
Presented: June 17, 2020, 11:00 AM Central Time
Speaker: Dr. Paul Oh, University of Nevada, Las Vegas
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ABSTRACT
In the past few years, robotic limbs have been attached to rotorcraft drones to perform aerial manipulation. Unlike simple object pick-and-place, such mobile-manipulating drones are dexterous to perform tasks like valve-turning, hatch-opening, and tool-handling. This is a paradigm shift where such drones actively interact with their environment rather than just passively surveil. Aerial manipulation is challenging because such interaction yields reaction forces and torques that destabilize the drone. This talk provides an overview of aerial manipulation and showcase examples that could serve in infrastructure inspection, maintenance, and repair.
SPEAKER
Dr. Paul Oh is the Lincy Professor of Unmanned Aerial Systems in the Mechanical Engineering Department for the Howard R. Hughes College of Engineering. He is establishing an unmanned autonomous systems laboratory at UNLV, complete with a fleet of drones and several humanoid robots. From 2000 to 2014, he served as a Mechanical Engineering Professor at Drexel University in Philadelphia and founded and directed the Drones and Autonomous Systems Laboratory (DASL). Oh is the former program director for robotics at the National Science Foundation where he managed a portfolio that supported almost all academic non-military robotics research in American universities. He has been a fellow of Boeing, and worked with the Office of Naval Research and NASA Caltech/Jet Propulsion Lab.
UAV-enabled Measurement for Spatial Magnetic Field of Smart Rocks in Bridge Scour Monitoring
Presented: September 14, 2020, 10:00AM-11:00 AM Central Time
Speaker: Dr. Genda Chen, Missouri S&T
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ABSTRACT
This lecture presented an overview of the research, development, validation, and implementation of 'smart' rocks as in-situ agents to assist in remote monitoring of bridge scour in real time. It started with a brief review of fundamental concepts such as magnet, polarization, magnetic field, and field measurement principle. It then introduced the concept of ‘smart’ rocks, demonstrated it through small-scale laboratory tests, and design and fabricated gravity-controlled ‘smart’ rocks for field implementation based on river hydrodynamics and riverbed conditions. Next, a ‘smart’ rock localization optimization algorithm was formulated analytically and validated experimentally in open fields. It was followed by the integration of magnetic field measurements into a mobile unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) including a global positioning system. Finally, this lecture presented the field test and simulation results at a bridge site and data interpretation to determine a critical engineering parameter - maximum scour depth in the past three years. Overall, a properly-designed ‘smart’ rock consistently moved down the bottom of a scour hole through repeated laboratory tests. Each UAV-supported field test lasted for about 10 minutes. The ‘smart’ rock positioning at the bridge site is consistent with an accuracy of approximately 0.3 m. ‘Smart’ rocks is a promising technology to mitigating the effects of bridge scour, which is the main reason for the collapsing of over 1,500 bridges in the U.S.
SPEAKER
Dr. Genda Chen is Professor and Robert W. Abbett Distinguished Chair in Civil Engineering, Director of the INSPIRE University Transportation Center, and Director of the Center for Intelligent Infrastructure at Missouri University of Science and Technology (S&T). He received his Ph.D. degree from the State University of New York at Buffalo in 1992 and joined Missouri S&T after over three years of bridge design, inspection, and construction practices. Since 1996, Dr. Chen has authored or co-authored over 400 technical publications in structural health monitoring (SHM), structural control, computational and experimental mechanics, multi-hazards assessment and mitigation, and transportation infrastructure preservation and resiliency including over 180 journal papers, 5 book chapters, and 27 keynote and invited presentations at international conferences. He chaired the 9th International Conference on Structural Health Monitoring of Intelligent Infrastructure (SHMII-9), St. Louis, Missouri, August 4-7, 2019. He received the 2019 SHM Person of the Year award, the 1998 National Science Foundation CAREER Award, the 2004 Academy of Civil Engineers Faculty Achievement Award, and the 2009, 2011, and 2013 Missouri S&T Faculty Research Awards. In 2016, he was nominated and inducted into the Academy of Civil Engineers at Missouri S&T and became an honorary member of Chi Epsilon. He is a Fellow of American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), Structural Engineering Institute (SEI), and the International Society for Structural Health Monitoring of Intelligent Infrastructure (ISHMII). He is a Section Editor of the Intelligent Sensors, Associate Editor of the Journal of Civil Structural Health Monitoring, Associate Editor of Advances in Bridge Engineering, Editorial Board Member of Advances in Structural Engineering, and Vice President of the U.S. Panel on Structural Control and Monitoring.
Artificial Intelligence-Empowered Civil Engineer
Presented: December 8, 2020, 9:00AM-10:00 AM Central Standard Time
Speaker: Hui Li, Harbin Institute of Technology; Harbin, China
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ABSTRACT
Artificial intelligence (AI) is an emerging cutting-edge technology, which have generated great impact to social science, business, medicine, natural science and engineering. The applications of AI will bring revolution to civil engineering in all sides. Most attractive concerns in natural science and engineering are that if we can create “AI-empowered SCIENTIST” and “AI-empowered CIVIL ENGINEER”. This seminar will focus on the “AI-empowered CIVIL ENGINEER” who can do design, fabrication, analysis, maintenance and disaster risk management by machine learning (ML) and deep learning. Specifically, the design of materials and the prediction of properties of materials by ML is first presented. The ML-based architecture design and topological design of structures are then introduced. Finally, a systematic approach for the ML-assisted health monitoring of structures is proposed to cover the topics such as abnormal data diagnosis, loss data recovery, modal identification, damage detection and condition assessment, load identification, and 3D model reconstruction. The applications of ML in wind engineering is also introduced.
SPEAKER
Dr. Hui Li is a Changjiang Scholar and Professor in Civil Engineering and Mechanics at Harbin Institute of Technology. Her research interests are centered at the intelligence science and technology of civil engineering. She is one of the pioneers in machine learning-assisted structural health monitoring and machine learning-based wind engineering around the world. She is the coauthor of more than 200 journal papers in authoritative journals, including Science, and author of more than 70 keynote lectures at various conferences. She is the PI of many big projects supported by Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) and Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) of China. She also serves as consultant of structural health monitoring systems for long-span bridges. She is the current president of International Association of Structural Control and Monitoring (IASCM) and ANCRiSST, and the chairman of Association of Structural Control and Monitoring of China.
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