This PFI: AIR Technology Translation project from Tufts University focuses on a Fatigue Health Portal (FHP), for translation of an advanced technology for real-time fatigue life prediction of in-service bridge structures. This product would fill an existing need to monitor and assess the conditions of aging US infrastructures. No existing product on the market offers real-time continuous operational fatigue prognosis and remaining life predictions, thus creating a market niche for the FHP. Full development, licensing, and commercialization of the FHP is vital as the US infrastructure ages, deteriorates and is thus increasingly "load-posted" (not recommended for transportation of materials and goods using heavier trucks). Load posting of bridges has major societal and commercial impact on the US market and economy and results in enormous costs of maintenance, retrofit, and replacement of the US highway bridges. An intelligent decision-oriented methodology can exploit real-time measured data and analysis, resulting in a more effective use of such information for infrastructure health monitoring and management. It will support a paradigm shift in the fatigue assessment profession to enable a data-driven and decision-oriented tool that can evolve as more structural response data is collected.
The target market for this methodology is bridge managers and owners concerned with limited service life due to fatigue of steel elements. The broader target market is any structural engineer interested in data-driven intelligent decision-making with respect to fatigue assessment of in-service structures, such as transmission towers or amusement park rides. Under this project, two full-scale bridges and one other structural type will be the case studies for validation of the proposed methodologies, allowing refinement of the analytical methods and experimental techniques to address challenges of commercialization. The project will result in a FHP prototype software package with proof-of-concept that meets the need for improved decision-making in infrastructure asset management. It will integrate structural health monitoring concepts, analytical fatigue life prediction, and advanced nonparametric statistical methods to enable real-time fatigue assessment and prognosis to be used for decision-making and asset management. This project addresses the following technology gaps for real-time decision-making: (1) efficient and reliable wireless sensors, data acquisition, cloud computing, and data communications, (2) nonparametric decision-oriented probabilistic operational methods for infrastructure fatigue assessments, and (3) prognosis and prediction of remaining infrastructure fatigue life.
The FHP has the following unique features: variable fatigue stress ranges, operational measured strains, unknown vehicle information, hypothesis testing for damage assessment, and use of an alert system that improves system safety. These features provide the following advantages: real-time structural fatigue life assessment using real-time measured strains, and use of efficient computational methodologies, which are cost effective when compared to the leading competing products and technology in this market space. This research collaboration, which involves three departments (Civil Engineering, Computer Science, and Economics) at two universities (Tufts University and University of New Hampshire), will strive to include underrepresented groups at the graduate, undergraduate, and high school level (students and teachers). In addition, personnel involved in this project will receive innovation, entrepreneurship, and technology translation experiences through product development, proof of concept, capstone projects, and licensing process of the IP. The academic and industrial partners of this project are looking forward to working together to transform research discoveries into market-ready products.
The lead institution is Tufts University with its departments of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Computer Science, and Economics. The primary subcontractor is the University of New Hampshire, with a current PFI BIC project, The Living Bridge: The Future of Smart, User-Centered Transportation Infrastructure, which will be used for proof of concept of the FHP. Primary industrial partner is Bridge Diagnostic Inc. (BDI) to transform research discoveries into market-ready products and contact with consumers of FHP. Broader context partners are Six Flags New England, New Hampshire Department of Transportation, and Massachusetts Department of Transportation.
