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Fernando Moreu-Alonso
- Advisor:
- Bill F. Spencer, Jr.
- Departments:
- Areas of Expertise:
- Intelligent Infrastructure Management
- Structural Health Monitoring
- Structural Dynamics
- Wireless Smart Sensors
- Thesis Title:
- Framework for Probability-Based Management of Railroad Bridge Infrastructure using Wireless Smart Sensors (WSS)
- Thesis abstract:
- North American railroads are currently exploring means and methods that can help improve the management of their bridges to increase overall profitability margins, add capacity to their rail network and rail operations, and comply with new federal regulations on bridge safety. Current advances in sensing technology have permitted the shift from traditional vision-based bridge maintenance strategies toward railroad managers using quantitative bridge response measurands under trains. This research develops a new framework for management of railroad bridges at the network level. The proposed framework uses the normalized bridge displacements to obtain bridge performance relative to predetermined service limit states using wireless smart sensors (WSS). Comparing bridge performances based on the bridge relevance within the network provides an all-in-one framework for the intelligent management of railroad bridges, and more specifically, for railroad bridge maintenance, replacement, and repair (MRR) decision prioritization. The results of this research provide railroads with (i) new monitoring strategies for railroad bridges using WSS, (ii) bridge condition assessment policies based on real-time information, and (iii) a new framework for bridge MRR decision prioritization at the network level that maximizes safety and profit under the same effort.
- Downloads:
Contact information:
moreualo@illinois.edu