A coupling member for coupling a solidified body and a structural member includes a sensor part that is capable of measuring physical variation resulting from external force and is for detecting information that will help determine whether there is an abnormality in the solidified body and/or structural member. The coupling member has an embedded part at one end that is embedded in the solidified body and/or ground and has a fixing part that is on the side of the other end extending outside of the solidified body and is capable of fixing the structural member.

A system and method of monitoring a tubular structure is provided. The method includes: a) sensing one or more parameters relating to the tubular structure at spaced apart positions along the length of the tubular structure using a sensor module array having a plurality of sensor modules disposed in a cable attached to the tubular structure, the plurality of sensor modules producing communication signals representative of the sensed parameter at each position along the length of the tubular structure; and b) using a control unit to communicate with the sensor modules in the array, including receiving communication signals representative of the sensed parameter at each position along the length of the tubular structure, and processing the communications signals to produce information relating to the sensed parameter at the positions along the length of the tubular structure.

The invention discloses a method and a system for predicting the corrosion fatigue life of prestressed concrete bridges. A corrosion level of the strand is predicted to obtain the residual tension force of a structure. A stress concentration factor is integrated to consider the stress concentration effect caused by pitting corrosion, and a growth model of the elastic stress of the strand under the coupled effect of corrosion and fatigue is proposed. A growth model of the plastic stress of the strand is established using a cross-section loss of the strand as a fatigue damage parameter based on a degenerated elastic modulus of the concrete after fatigue. Failure criteria for the concrete, the strand, and a longitudinal tension bar are defined, so that a set of methods for analyzing the life of a prestressed concrete bridge subjected to corrosive environment and fatigue load are formed.

A method of monitoring turbine blade creep in a gas turbine engine is provided. The method includes: receiving an image of a turbine blade of a row of turbine blades, the image having been obtained using a borescope located in the engine adjacent a row of turbine blades; measuring on the image a distance between radially inner and radially outer landmarks on the turbine blade; and comparing the measured distance with a reference distance to determine an amount of creep-induced lengthening of the blade.

Disclosed herein is a method for monitoring a health status of one or of a plurality of bridges (10) under normal traffic condition. The method comprises: a) providing at least one sensing device (12) per bridge configured to measure a physical quantity variation related to the integrity of said one or said plurality of bridges; b) providing a fleet of heavy vehicles (14), wherein an estimation of the weight of each heavy vehicle is known with a deviation of no more than 10% of the actual weight of each heavy vehicle; c) acquiring a set of physical data related to the integrity of said one or said plurality of bridges (10) from said at least one sensing device (12) when at least one heavy vehicle of the fleet crosses one bridge (10); d) determining the configuration of other vehicles (15a, 15b, 15c, 15d, 15e) on the bridge, if any, when said at least one heavy vehicle (14) crosses said one bridge; e) repeating steps c) and d) in order to acquire multiple sets of physical data related to the integrity of said one or said plurality of bridges (10) so that the number of sets of integrity data associated with one bridge (10) permits to measure or observe a deviation, and c) obtaining a health status of said one or said plurality of bridges based on the deviation between said multiple sets of physical data associated with one bridge.

Methods and apparatuses for using a structure as a sensor are disclosed. An apparatus in accordance with an aspect of the present disclosure comprises an additively-manufactured component comprising a channel, a sensor including an connection point, wherein the sensor is arranged in the channel, and an adhesive arranged in the channel, the adhesive coupling the additively-manufactured component to the sensor, such that the connection point is accessible external to the adhesive, the sensor being configured to provide a signal at the connection point, wherein the signal provides information of an applied force on the additively-manufactured component.

A fastener health monitoring system includes a structure including a first component and a second component, one or more fasteners securing the first component to the second component, and an optical fiber arranged adjacent to the one or more fasteners. The fiber is configured to detect strain on the structure from the one or more fasteners. Strain patterns are derivable from sensed data from the optical fiber, and any deviation in strain value greater than a threshold value at a particular fiber position along the optical fiber is indicative of a missing, damaged, or loosened fastener amongst the one or more of fasteners corresponding to that particular fiber position.

An apparatus, and related method, relates generally to a fiber-optic sensing system. In such a system, fiber-optic sensors are in a rosette or rosette-like pattern. An optical circulator is coupled to receive a light signal from a broadband light source, to provide the light signal to the fiber-optic sensors, and to receive a returned optical signal from the fiber-optic sensors. A spectral engine is coupled to the optical circulator to receive the returned optical signal and configured to provide an output signal.

In an optical fiber monitoring system which detects physical disturbance or other parameters such as temperature or strain of a fiber where a monitor signal is transmitted along the optical fiber and analyzed to detect changes which are indicative of an event, a method is provided for periodically checking proper operation of the optical fiber monitoring system. A fiber disturbance actuator periodically causes a pattern of disturbances of a portion of the fiber at a predetermined location thereon where the disturbance is characteristic of the event to be monitored. The monitor signal is analyzed to detect the pattern of changes and in the event that expected changes are not detected, a warning is issued that the intrusion detection system is not properly operating.

A method for identifying prestress force in single-span or multi-span PCI girder-bridges is provided. The method includes non-destructive steps for obtaining a set of parameters of the PCI girder-bridge under investigation, and combines various analyses to identify the change of prestress force. Therefore, the losses of prestress force are tracked and predicted. The method does not cause structural damages along the PCI girder-bridge, and the cost of the identification is significantly decreased.