Long run ambient noise recording for a masonry medieval tower

S. Casciati,A. Tento,S. Casciati,R. Daminelli 국제구조공학회 2014 Smart Structures and Systems, An International Jou Vol.14 No.3

Ambient vibration techniques are nowadays a very popular tool to assess dynamic properties of buildings. Due to its non destructive character, this method is particularly valuable, especially for health monitoring of historical monuments. The present ambient vibration experiment consists on the evaluation of vibration modes of a Medieval tower. Situated in Soncino (close to Cremona, in the Northern Italian region named Lombardia), the tower of 41.5 meters height has been monitored by seismometers located at different points inside the structure. Spectral ratios of the recorded ambient vibrations clearly identify a fundamental mode at about 1 Hz, with a slight difference in the two horizontal components. A second mode is also evidenced at approx 4-5 Hz, with a moderate degree of uncertainty. The records of a ML 4.4 earthquake, occurred during the monitoring period, confirm the information obtained by microtremor analysis. Daily variations of both 1st and 2nd mode were detected: these variations, of an amount up to 2%, seem to be well related with the temperature

Vision-based support in the characterization of superelastic U-shaped SMA elements

F. Casciati,S. Casciati,A. Colnaghi,L. Faravelli,L. Rosadini,S. Zhu 국제구조공학회 2019 Smart Structures and Systems, An International Jou Vol.24 No.5

The authors investigate the feasibility of applying a vision-based displacement-measurement technique in the characterization of a SMA damper recently introduced in the literature. The experimental campaign tests a steel frame on a uni-axial shaking table driven by sinusoidal signals in the frequency range from 1Hz to 5Hz. Three different cameras are used to collect the images, namely an industrial camera and two commercial smartphones. The achieved results are compared. The camera showing the better performance is then used to test the same frame after its base isolation. U-shaped, shape-memory-alloy (SMA) elements are installed as dampers at the isolation level. The accelerations of the shaking table and those of the frame basement are measured by accelerometers. A system of markers is glued on these system components, as well as along the U-shaped elements serving as dampers. The different phases of the test are discussed, in the attempt to obtain as much possible information on the behavior of the SMA elements. Several tests were carried out until the thinner U-shaped element went to failure.

Potentially-innovative options in designing suspension bridges with railway crossing

F. Casciati,S. Casciati 국제구조공학회 2023 Smart Structures and Systems, An International Jou Vol.32 No.5

Both the first author and the company of the second author were involved, directly or indirectly, in the design stage of a permanent link between the bottom of the Italian peninsula and the nearby Sicily island. This ambitious project was left in stand-by from 2013 to 2023. The current political revival originates some thoughts on the updated desired performance of suspension bridges, without any immediate reference to that specific crossing. It is simply regarded as a starting point. After an update on recent worldwide realizations, the authors focus their attention on four basic aspects: the span length, the girder scheme, the foundation technology and the bridge runability. Eventually, structural control and monitoring aspects are discussed as potentially innovative options in designing suspension bridges with railway crossing.

Optimal reduction from an initial sensor deployment along the deck of a cable-stayed bridge

F. Casciati,S. Casciati,L. Elia,L. Faravelli 국제구조공학회 2016 Smart Structures and Systems, An International Jou Vol.17 No.3

The ambient vibration measurement is an output-data-only dynamic testing where natural excitations are represented, for instance, by winds and typhoons. The modal identification involving output-only measurements requires the use of specific modal identification techniques. This paper presents the application of a reliable method (the Stochastic Subspace Identification – SSI) implemented in a general purpose software. As a criterion toward the robustness of identified modes, a bio-inspired optimization algorithm, with a highly nonlinear objective function, is introduced in order to find the optimal deployment of a reduced number of sensors across a large civil engineering structure for the validation of its modal identification. The Ting Kau Bridge (TKB), one of the longest cable-stayed bridges situated in Hong Kong, is chosen as a case study. The results show that the proposed method catches eigenvalues and eigenvectors even for a reduced number of sensors, without any significant loss of accuracy.

Long run ambient noise recording for a masonry medieval tower

Casciati, S.,Tento, A.,Marcellini, A.,Daminelli, R. Techno-Press 2014 Smart Structures and Systems, An International Jou Vol.14 No.3

Ambient vibration techniques are nowadays a very popular tool to assess dynamic properties of buildings. Due to its non destructive character, this method is particularly valuable, especially for health monitoring of historical monuments. The present ambient vibration experiment consists on the evaluation of vibration modes of a Medieval tower. Situated in Soncino (close to Cremona, in the Northern Italian region named Lombardia), the tower of 41.5 meters height has been monitored by seismometers located at different points inside the structure. Spectral ratios of the recorded ambient vibrations clearly identify a fundamental mode at about 1 Hz, with a slight difference in the two horizontal components. A second mode is also evidenced at approx 4-5 Hz, with a moderate degree of uncertainty. The records of a ML 4.4 earthquake, occurred during the monitoring period, confirm the information obtained by microtremor analysis. Daily variations of both 1st and 2nd mode were detected: these variations, of an amount up to 2%, seem to be well related with the temperature.

Sensor placement driven by a model order reduction (MOR) reasoning

Casciati, Fabio,Faravelli, Lucia Techno-Press 2014 Smart Structures and Systems, An International Jou Vol.13 No.3

Given a body undergoing a stress-strain status as consequence of external excitations, sensors can be deployed on the accessible lateral surface of the body. The sensor readings are regarded as input of a numerical model of reduced order (i.e., the number of sensors is lower than the number of the state variables the full model would require). The goal is to locate the sensors in such a way to minimize the deviations from the response of the true (full) model. One adopts either accelerometers as sensors or devices reading relative displacements. Two applications are studied: a plane frame is first investigated; the focus is eventually on a 3D body.

Quantity vs. Quality in the Model Order Reduction (MOR) of a Linear System

Casciati, Sara,Faravelli, Lucia Techno-Press 2014 Smart Structures and Systems, An International Jou Vol.13 No.1

The goal of any Model Order Reduction (MOR) technique is to build a model of order lower than the one of the real model, so that the computational effort is reduced, and the ability to estimate the input-output mapping of the original system is preserved in an important region of the input space. Actually, since only a subset of the input space is of interest, the matching is required only in this subset of the input space. In this contribution, the consequences on the achieved accuracy of adopting different reduction technique patterns is discussed mainly with reference to a linear case study.

Wireless links for global positioning system receivers

Casciati, Fabio,Wu, Lijun Techno-Press 2012 Smart Structures and Systems, An International Jou Vol.10 No.1

Given an object, its positioning in the space is a main concern in structural monitoring and a required feedback in structural health monitoring, structural control and robotics. In addition, to make the sensor unit wireless is a crucial issue for advanced applications. This paper deals with the exploitation of wireless transmission technology to long-term monitoring GPS (Global Positioning System) receivers - like the Leica GMX 902 and the Leica GRX 1200-pro. These GPS receivers consist of five parts: antenna, receiver, user client computer, interface and power supply. The antenna is mounted on the object to be monitored and is connected with the receiver by a coaxial-cable through which the radio frequency signals are transmitted. The receiver unit acquires, tracks and demodulates the satellite signals and provides, through an interface which in this paper is made wireless, the resulting GPS raw data to the user client computer for being further processed by a suitable positioning algorithm. The power supply reaches the computer by a wired link, while the other modules rely on batteries re-charged by power harvesting devices. Two wireless transmission systems, the 24XStream and the CC1110, are applied to replace the cable transmission between the receiver and the user client computer which up to now was the only market offer. To verify the performance and the reliability of this wireless transmission system, some experiments are conducted. The results show a successful cable replacement.

Variability in mechanical properties and microstructure characterization of CuAlBe shape memory alloys for vibration mitigation

Casciati, Fabio,van der Eijk, Casper Techno-Press 2008 Smart Structures and Systems, An International Jou Vol.4 No.2

Shape memory alloys (SMA) have been emphasized, studied and understood in the controlled world of the laboratory. Any attempt to implement one of these alloys in engineered products requires a jump from the controlled world of the laboratory to the actual environment of the application. The first step is to move from single grain specimens to multigrain samples. One works with a material for which any stock is different from that previously available. This paper reviews the milestones in the familiarization process the authors had to overcome during their cooperation within a project funded by the European Union. The main items cover transformation temperatures, thermal treatment and properties understanding.

Experimental studies on the fatigue life of shape memory alloy bars

Casciati, Sara,Marzi, Alessandro Techno-Press 2010 Smart Structures and Systems, An International Jou Vol.6 No.1

The potential offered by the thermo-mechanical properties of shape memory alloys (SMA) in structural engineering applications has been the topic of many research studies during the last two decades. The main issues concern the long-term predictability of the material behaviour and the fatigue lifetime of the macro structural elements (as different from the one of wire segments). The laboratory tests reported in this paper are carried out on bar specimens and they were planned in order to pursue two objectives. First, the creep phenomenon is investigated for two different alloys, a classical Ni-Ti alloy and a Cu-based alloy. The attention is then focused on the Cu-based alloy only and its fatigue characteristics at given temperatures are investigated. Stress and thermal cycles are alternated to detect any path dependency.