The new laser sensor technology has been developed to monitor in real time the damage to buildings caused by the earthquake

Buildings affected by earthquakes, bridges, and other critical infrastructure may be evaluated more quickly for safety and response options after an event with new optical technology and sensors being developed and field tested by the University of Nevada, Reno and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

Development is continuing with new funding of $ 240,000 from the Ministry of Energy’s Nuclear Safety Bureau. Prototypes of laser-based sensors were released last year. The new grant will enhance the design of the new optical technology for direct measurement of the drift between floors – displacement between the floors of the building – in two directions. Interstate drift is a fundamental measure of a building’s deformation that is used in several ways to assess a building’s performance

“The current sensor and wireless network design is complete here in our seismic laboratory,” said David McAllen, professor and director of the Seismic Engineering Laboratory at the College of Engineering, as well as the chief scientist in the Energy Science division of Berkeley Lab. “This technology can transform the ability to assess damage and respond quickly to earthquakes. We are pushing for a wider application of this new technology.”

The system is designed to provide an unprecedented ability to quickly determine the safety of a facility after a major earthquake and enable and accelerate informed response decisions and efforts related to safety assessment, repair and re-occupancy of buildings after a large earthquake.

Field test conducted at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory with continuous operation since September 2019 in a multi-storey building located two blocks from the city from Hayward active fault, which is considered one of the most serious errors in the United States. Sensors are able to capture building response to small, frequent earthquakes. Proprietary software allows engineers to verify sensors, download data and set recording levels from the new remote sensing laboratory from the University of Nevada, the Renault Earthquake Engineering Laboratory complex.

The sensor system will also be installed this summer on the northern Nevada Bridge Bridge to further validate the technology.

“Diffusion is an active live test for us and is crucial for verifying field performance,” said McAllen, who leads the research collaboration. “Prototype sensor measurements showed excellent drift measurement. The improved accuracy of the current advanced version of the sensor allows measurements to be drifted in only 0.5 mm so that small-capacity ambient vibrations of building systems can also be used for computer model validation and structural health monitoring.”

The system will provide the Ministry of Energy with an unprecedented ability to determine the operational capacity of critical facilities immediately after an earthquake from any off-site location and enable informed, time-sensitive decisions to be made.

The new generation of optical sensors is being designed, built and will be tested at the University of Nevada, Earthquake Engineering Laboratory in Reno. The first prototypes in the world-famous laboratory were tested on 14 x 14 ft hydraulic driven shaking tables which created realistic computer-driven earthquake motions on structural systems of increasing sophistication.

Known as a separate diode position sensor, the tool includes a microprocessor and 92 low-cost laser sensitive diode measurements to measure the precise location of the falling laser. Other components of the system are a small low power laser generator, backup power systems, removable data storage and RF connections.

“Previous generations of sensors were slightly larger than the system that we are now able to deploy,” McAllen said. “With the integration of design features based on lessons learned from previous generations of the system, it is now a quarter of the size of the original sensor design.

The system displays laser light and senses the position where the light hits a detector, and measures structural deviation. Using a geometric set of light-sensitive small diodes, the sensor is able to track the position of the laser beam instantly.

Patrick Laplace, Director of the Earthquake Engineering Laboratory, noted that “the developed sensor package uses developments in microprocessors and wireless communications to make many of the previous challenges to designing the sensor system achievable on a time-scale and cost-effective. The sensor system has been developed taking into account the full integration of Emerging Internet of Things (IOT) “.

Statistical modeling of experiments conducted with Berkeley Lab will also lead to more accurate data modeling to assist in planning and designing buildings, bridges and other critical infrastructure.

Floriana Petron, a faculty member in civil engineering, said that “smart infrastructure” has become an unavoidable model in civil engineering applications. Integrating structures into self-monitoring and self-reporting capabilities creates an opportunity to achieve self-diagnostic structures, allowing time to make critical decisions based on information, and reduce maintenance costs. The current sensor and wireless network is an example of how to translate the smart infrastructure model into a deployment-ready technology that opens windows New structural health monitoring and damage detection applications.

From the University of Nevada, Reno College of Engineering, Professor David McAllen, the project collaborators. Assistant Professor Floriana Petron; Associate Researcher Patrick Laplace. Technical technicians Chad Little and Todd Little will manufacture and deploy GENIII sensors at the Seismic Engineering Research Center of the Civil Engineering Center. Collaborators from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory include Connie Lynn and Bill Wright from lab operations in deployment and field testing of sensors.

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