Using Satellites To Monitor Bridge Safety 36
__roo writes: In an effort to detect crumbling infrastructure before it causes damage and costs lives, the European Space Agency is working with the UK's University of Nottingham to monitor the movements of large structures as they happen using satellite navigation sensors. The team uses highly sensitive satnav receivers that transmit real-time data to detect movements as small as 1 cm combined with historical Earth observation satellite data. By placing sensors at key locations on the Forth Road Bridge in Scotland, they detected stressed structural members and unexpected deformations.
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will use this as an excuse to spend even less money on bridges. They hate us and refuse to provide jobs via infrastructure projects. They would rather have us all die on broken bridges than give one job to a single person. Here in the Republican-ruled shithole of Seattle, our waterfront has been destroyed by something called the Alaskan Viaduct, or as the locals call it, the Republican Monster. It is horrible. It is falling down. Even the Republicans admit that it is dangerous and is going to fall. But, because it uglifies the waterfront, the Republicans want to keep it. They hate us and want to make our lives so ugly. So ugly. The Republicans in Seattle are full of hate.
Typical liberal. Completely against education and knowledge.
If you want to go live in a cave with your hairy, sinky-snatch woman. Go ahead. Retarding society and ruining it for the rest of us.
Imagine if you will, we knew what bridges were going to fail. Or, even if we knew how to make better ones that lasted longer because we know how they fail. Or, maybe this technology becomes cheap, you know, like every other motherfucking thing we do now, and can be simply bolted on a bunch of places on a bridge, w
Looking at a bridge from space is somehow better? (Score:4, Funny)
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Oh, it's pretty easy... if the bridge vanishes from the orbital image, then it is classified as "unsafe"
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Yes. But that would be more expensive than just installing GPS receivers on key structural components.
But you see, that is exactly what they did:
The team fixed highly sensitive satnav receivers for detecting movements as small as 1 cm at key locations on the Forth Road Bridge in Scotland.
So they just gather routine movements of the bridge, and send them electronically. If they ever start moving beyond the historical envelop they send someone to inspect. By that time the failure process is well underway.
Re: Looking at a bridge from space is somehow bett (Score:2)
Relies on someone going out there each time it needs evaluation. Or were you suggesting running lasers running 24/7 to some tamper proof target sensors? Run the numbers. Gps is way cheaper.
Re: Looking at a bridge from space is somehow bet (Score:2)
There are laser location sensors in several underground stations in London that have construction work nearby. One laser thing on a robot seems to routinely measure the distance to many fixed targets.
GPS isn't an option, so you could still be right that it's cheaper.
What does this have to do with satellites. (Score:3, Informative)
Other than high precision GPS what does this have to do with satellites?
Sensor technology is improving so fast that tools better than this are possible
and inexpensive. It just takes doing it. Perhaps a gaggle of folk from
the Makers Fair will do it for $101.00 next weekend.
In all fairness bureaucratic constipation costs lives.
Positive train controls should have been installed years ago on all rolling stock in the US.
Baring that a software and map update to a common sub $200 GPS that could track and log train speed
as well as sound a Klaxton to alert the engineer. It need not be integrated to the train in a
way that requires system review. Management could apply a GPS-RF transparent optionally solar powered box to
the outside of engines and other common rolling stock to record travel data. DOT could do the same
and track to see if management pressure is pushing engineers to operate outside of guidelines.
A little harder is realtime track monitoring but a shipping container bed could be modified with sensors and
a container of instrument systems mounted on it. Again there is no need to touch critical controls in ways that
risk safety for many audits. Lasers could locate surfaces on tracks with precision. G-sensors, accelerometers
acoustic audits, time, temperature are all possible. To get back to the original topic the container would
"see" track as well as bridges. Offloaded to a truck bed the container would see highways and rubber wheel
only bridges and roads. Tesla seems to have helped with the battery packaging but older Fe based power
storage would be fine as the "pig" need not be weight limited like a car.
Some of this is already happening just not enough of it. More agility is needed.
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I've always wondered why city busses and other utility vehicles couldn't be mounted with sensors to measure the condition of the road surface in urban areas. You could get multiple times per day readings on many arterial streets and probably the entire city's road surface 3D scanned annually.
The data could be used for planning and organizing street patching and repair tasks at a minimum. It might also help with surfacing technology and better determine long-term major maintenance.
Bridges Are Not Static Structures! (Score:3, Informative)
The author of TFA doesn't have a clue. This idea is useless as bridges, particularly suspension bridges, deflect by much more than 1 cm under traffic and wind loads.
Here is a time lapse video of the Manhattan bridge to illustrate normal deflections:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DgXveBf_l6k [youtube.com]
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This is about monitoring deflections to ensure they are in within the designed safe boundaries, not to ensure they're not happening at all.
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Maybe, but this won't catch a lot of failures caused by corrosion or fatigue cracking, or under-designed structures that are built with excessive static deflections from the get go. Many times the first excessive deflection is the one that sends the bridge into the river. Even if this worked as advertised, it does not replace visual inspection for defects.
Look at the I-35W bridge failure in Minnesota as a case in point. Sadly, this bridge *had* been inspected visually, numerous times, and was found to be st
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Nobody said it was a cure for all possible problems with bridges.
It's a tool to be used where appropriate.
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Just because something has an accuracy of X doesn't mean that it's a binary measurement. That would be like having a speedometer accurate to 1 MPH, and therefore you could only know whether your speed is below 1 MPH or above 1 MPH.
It probably takes more movement than just 1 cm to trigger an alarm. Or the system might need that precision in order to monitor patterns that often correlate to deficiencies.
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I think the aouthor of TFA knows that:
Bridgemaster Barry Colford observed: “This information is extremely useful for understanding how much the bridge can move under extreme weather conditions. This allows us to decide to close the bridge based on precise deformation information.
"For example, I knew that the bridge can move significantly under high winds but for the first time I know that bridge moved 3.5 m laterally and 1.83 m vertically under a wind speed of 41 m/s."
probably good (Score:2, Insightful)
As long as the efforts actually pass scientific muster, as opposed to simply frightening a gullible public into ineffective tax and spend policies, it's a good idea.
That said, when an article begins with the assertion that infrastructure is crumbling, it's already biased.
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All infrastructure is crumbling (or the appropriate adjective for the building material). That's a simple fact. The only question is how far along is the crumbling, and when will it lead to complete failure?
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We have a situation where the Federal government built things on the premise that the states would maintain them, but the states - in large part due to people like you - have refused to spend the money the Fed said was necessary from the get go.
T
Can it assign blame from up there? (Score:4, Funny)
How does this help with collisions? (Score:2)
Lately, bridges seem to fall over because someone hits them, not because they're "crumbling infrastructure."
Do the authors really think satellites will help with collisions or crumbling? How about an annual or semi-annual inspection instead?
Re: How does this help with collisions? (Score:2)
The last time a bridge collapsed in the UK due to a maintenence problem seems to be 50 years ago. I think we've got this one sorted...
(Bridges have been washed away by floodwater within the last decade, usually really old ones. If the river profile was changed by a land use change upstream, that could be blamed on inadequate processes.)
Receivers that transmit (Score:2)
Receivers that transmit? WTF
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really? (Score:2)
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