Minneapolis bridge collapse spurs schools to tout bridge-safety research

Wireless, nanotechnology key tools in safeguarding bridges

The collapse of the Interstate 35W bridge in Minneapolis has sent universities into overdrive promoting the wireless and nanotechnology research going on in their labs that could one day make bridges and other structures safer.

This sort of technology PR flood in the wake of a tragedy hasn’t been seen since Hurricane Katrina struck two years ago.

At Clarkson University in Potsdam, N.Y., a professor has created a system for remotely monitoring bridges using a dense network of wireless sensors.The work is being funded by the state, which is trying to improve oversight of its bridges.

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The collapse of the Interstate 35W bridge in Minneapolis has sent universities into overdrive promoting the wireless and nanotechnology research going on in their labs that could one day make bridges and other structures safer.

This sort of technology PR flood in the wake of a tragedy hasn’t been seen since Hurricane Katrina struck two years ago.

At Clarkson University in Potsdam, N.Y., a professor has created a system for remotely monitoring bridges using a dense network of wireless sensors.The work is being funded by the state, which is trying to improve oversight of its bridges.

The sensors developed and rolled out by Kerop Janoyan, associate professor of civil and environmental engineering, measure bridge vibration and strain, according to the school. Data is sent from microprocessors and transceivers to a base station for monitoring and review.

North Carolina A&T State University claims a professor there has developed “technology that could have possibly prevented the bridge collapse in Minneapolis, Minn.” Mannur Sundaresan,professor of mechanical engineering, has come up with a “single channel continuous sensor” that can spot cracks in bridges and other structures before too much damage is done. The sensors are off the shelf, but they are configured in such a way as to be able to acoustically monitor structures, according to the school. The Department of Defense originally funded the research behind the Acoustic Emission Sensoring Technology, which is now licensed by UTEK.

“Small cracks are like cancer,” Sundaresan says in a statement. “They’re usually not noticed until they’ve grown large enough to cause serious damage. These sensors will detect the growth of cracks in their early stages just as our nervous system alerts us of any injury immediately so that we can take action to limit the damage.”

Sticking with the human body metaphor, the University of Michigan has created what it calls a “new skin” for bridges and other structures that “could be a sixth sense for inspectors looking for cracks and corrosion that could lead to a catastrophic failure like the recent Minneapolis bridge collapse.”

The school’s College of Engineering has created a polymer-based black coating that could be painted or sprayed on structures. The coating consists of carbon nanotube networks that can test numerous things, such as cracking and pH level changes that can signal corrosion. Here’s how it works, according to the school:

“The perimeter of the carbon nanotube skin is lined with electrodes that are connected to a microprocessor. . . . To read what’s going on underneath the skin, scientists (or inspectors) send an electric current through the embedded carbon nanotubes. Corrosion and cracking cause changes in the electrical resistance in the nanotube skin. The microprocessor then creates a two-dimensional visual map of that resistance. The map shows inspectors any corrosion or fracturing too small for human eyes to detect.”

More details can be found in this paper from Jerome Lynch, assistant professor in the College of Engineering.