Structure integrity gets measured up
Structural integrity of construction projects such as bridges, tunnels, domes, dams and even offshore facilities, is a vital aspect to their continual functionality and safety. Changes in any number of factors such as environmental disturbances like storms and earthquakes, to the impact of man made influence such as heavy industrial traffic, as well as the integral stresses and strains of the structure itself, can, with the advent of time, seriously threaten the structural integrity of a building. How to monitor such damage, especially when massive structures are involved has proven to be extremely difficult to accomplish. Additionally, the neural networks often employed have no standardised, qualitative or objective methodologies behind them with which to draw up comparisons of changed parameters in order to establish a clear cut understanding of how much a structural change a building has undergone. The AMADEUS project aims at abolishing this industry weakness by devising both a reliable and repeatable testing application. Based on software capable of simple analysis and measurements, the project established routine methods for testing the "healthy" state of structures against a database of the same structure when damaged. Depending on the differences between these sets of measurements, a verdict of the structural integrity can be safely reached. This application holds specific interest for the aerospace, construction, automotive and aeronautics industries and with future developments and evolution, the methodology and scope could be brought to focus on machine tools, off-shore and road transport interests as well. While the software is specialised, the Expert system is usable by technician level users and the development of a portable PC based system, including the software and hardware necessary has been concluded.
