Monitoring and Assessment of Masonry Infrastructure
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Cambridge
Department Name: Engineering
Abstract
This project involves laser-scanning, fibre-optic strain monitoring and vibration measurement of historic, Victorian railway bridges and viaducts. The general objective is to achieve a greater understanding of the structural behaviour of masonry rail infrastructure and the deterioration processes that govern historic masonry, specifically under dynamic train loading. Maintenance and mitigation strategies shall also be developed.
The long-term behaviour of these arched masonry structures is not well understood and, as such, repair work that is undertaken today may in fact have detrimental effects over the lifetime of an asset. This project will allow upcoming restorations to be done in a sympathetic manner, securing these structures for the future and ensuring resource efficiency on the UK rail network.
Monitoring and sensing techniques are becoming increasingly popular within structural engineering and this project will continue important work needed to extend their usage to masonry structures.
Collaboration with Historic England, Network Rail and the Cambridge Centre for Smart Infrastructure and Construction (CSIC) will form an important component of the project and will ensure that it always retains its links to the real-world infrastructure assets it aims to benefit.
Relevant EPSRC research areas include:
Built environment
Performance and inspection of mechanical structures and systems
Resource efficiency
Sensors and instrumentation
Structural engineering
The long-term behaviour of these arched masonry structures is not well understood and, as such, repair work that is undertaken today may in fact have detrimental effects over the lifetime of an asset. This project will allow upcoming restorations to be done in a sympathetic manner, securing these structures for the future and ensuring resource efficiency on the UK rail network.
Monitoring and sensing techniques are becoming increasingly popular within structural engineering and this project will continue important work needed to extend their usage to masonry structures.
Collaboration with Historic England, Network Rail and the Cambridge Centre for Smart Infrastructure and Construction (CSIC) will form an important component of the project and will ensure that it always retains its links to the real-world infrastructure assets it aims to benefit.
Relevant EPSRC research areas include:
Built environment
Performance and inspection of mechanical structures and systems
Resource efficiency
Sensors and instrumentation
Structural engineering
People |
ORCID iD |
| Matthew DeJong (Primary Supervisor) | |
| Samuel Cocking (Student) |
Studentship Projects
| Project Reference | Relationship | Related To | Start | End | Student Name |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| EP/N509620/1 | 01/10/2016 | 30/09/2022 | |||
| 1730520 | Studentship | EP/N509620/1 | 01/10/2016 | 30/09/2020 | Samuel Cocking |
| Description | Through collaboration between CSIC (my research group), AECOM and Network Rail, this research is generating guidance that can be used to inform future structural health monitoring of bridge assets undertaken by Network Rail. Network Rail have important asset management responsibilities, and a long-term goal of digitising their infrastructure through the use of sensors; the findings of this research are contributing towards the delivery of these goals. More specifically, this research is focused on improving structural knowledge of historic masonry infrastructure within the UK rail network. The outcomes will allow for Network Rail to make more-informed monitoring decisions for these structures. This will help to ensure that these structures, many of which have historic value, can be safeguarded for future generations, as well as preventing costly, environmentally-unfriendly, and potentially unnecessary replacements of these assets. |
| First Year Of Impact | 2019 |
| Sector | Transport |
| Impact Types | Economic,Policy & public services |
| Description | Monitoring collaboration with AECOM and Network Rail |
| Organisation | AECOM Technology Corporation |
| Country | United States |
| Sector | Private |
| PI Contribution | Network Rail commissioned a joint monitoring project between AECOM and CSIC (the Cambridge Centre for Smart Infrastructure and Construction, which is the research group in which I work). This project involved installation of a wide range of structural health monitoring technologies on a masonry arch railway bridge near Leeds, UK, and the use of these technologies to monitor bridge response under train loading. The main deliverable from this collaboration is a series of reports for Network Rail, evaluating the different technologies with a view to streamlining future monitoring decisions that Network Rail will take on their other, similar bridge assets. Following internal review, Network Rail intends to submit these reports as part of their contribution to the European Shift2Rail research initiative, as an example of research that it is funding. Furthermore, data analysis and interpretation from this collaboration form the basis of a series of academic conference and journal articles, some of which have now been published and others of which are currently pre-publication. AECOM have an interest in fibre-optic technologies for structural health monitoring, which is an area of expertise at CSIC. Knowledge transfer in this field has been enabled by this collaboration. |
| Collaborator Contribution | AECOM have provided organisational and project management services to the CSIC installation, which was carried out in parallel to installation of AECOM's own sensors. Furthermore, data sharing between CSIC and AECOM's sensors is taking place, to aid interpretation and report writing. AECOM have directly contributed to one academic conference paper that is based on this work, and may contribute to other publications in the future. Network Rail have provided funding and access for the project, as well as sharing information and participating in regular meetings and workshops. They are also advising us of similar bridges that will enable the collaboration to be extended in the future, applying the recommendations from the conclusions of the current work. |
| Impact | Three consultancy reports describing the collaboration to date have already been accepted by Network Rail, and a fourth will shortly be written summarising long-term monitoring findings. The intention is that all of these reports will be published through Shift2Rail. Three academic conference papers have been written based on this collaboration. These were presented at various international conferences, and thereafter published in the relevant conference proceedings. These conferences were: (a) International Conference on Smart Infrastructure and Construction, July 8-10 2019, Cambridge, UK, (b) 9th International Conference on Structural Health Monitoring of Intelligent Infrastructure, August 7-9 2019, St Louis, Missouri USA, (c) 9th International Conference on Arch Bridges, October 2-4 2019, Porto, Portugal. Academic journal publications will also be forthcoming. The work so far has also led to future opportunities for monitoring collaborations between CSIC, AECOM, and Network Rail, to help meet Network Rail's asset management requirements, as well as their longer term goal of digitising the rail network using sensors, and knowledge transfer between all three organisations. |
| Start Year | 2017 |
| Description | Monitoring collaboration with AECOM and Network Rail |
| Organisation | Network Rail Ltd |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Private |
| PI Contribution | Network Rail commissioned a joint monitoring project between AECOM and CSIC (the Cambridge Centre for Smart Infrastructure and Construction, which is the research group in which I work). This project involved installation of a wide range of structural health monitoring technologies on a masonry arch railway bridge near Leeds, UK, and the use of these technologies to monitor bridge response under train loading. The main deliverable from this collaboration is a series of reports for Network Rail, evaluating the different technologies with a view to streamlining future monitoring decisions that Network Rail will take on their other, similar bridge assets. Following internal review, Network Rail intends to submit these reports as part of their contribution to the European Shift2Rail research initiative, as an example of research that it is funding. Furthermore, data analysis and interpretation from this collaboration form the basis of a series of academic conference and journal articles, some of which have now been published and others of which are currently pre-publication. AECOM have an interest in fibre-optic technologies for structural health monitoring, which is an area of expertise at CSIC. Knowledge transfer in this field has been enabled by this collaboration. |
| Collaborator Contribution | AECOM have provided organisational and project management services to the CSIC installation, which was carried out in parallel to installation of AECOM's own sensors. Furthermore, data sharing between CSIC and AECOM's sensors is taking place, to aid interpretation and report writing. AECOM have directly contributed to one academic conference paper that is based on this work, and may contribute to other publications in the future. Network Rail have provided funding and access for the project, as well as sharing information and participating in regular meetings and workshops. They are also advising us of similar bridges that will enable the collaboration to be extended in the future, applying the recommendations from the conclusions of the current work. |
| Impact | Three consultancy reports describing the collaboration to date have already been accepted by Network Rail, and a fourth will shortly be written summarising long-term monitoring findings. The intention is that all of these reports will be published through Shift2Rail. Three academic conference papers have been written based on this collaboration. These were presented at various international conferences, and thereafter published in the relevant conference proceedings. These conferences were: (a) International Conference on Smart Infrastructure and Construction, July 8-10 2019, Cambridge, UK, (b) 9th International Conference on Structural Health Monitoring of Intelligent Infrastructure, August 7-9 2019, St Louis, Missouri USA, (c) 9th International Conference on Arch Bridges, October 2-4 2019, Porto, Portugal. Academic journal publications will also be forthcoming. The work so far has also led to future opportunities for monitoring collaborations between CSIC, AECOM, and Network Rail, to help meet Network Rail's asset management requirements, as well as their longer term goal of digitising the rail network using sensors, and knowledge transfer between all three organisations. |
| Start Year | 2017 |
| Description | Invited lecture at an ITN-FINESSE summer school on Structural Health Monitoring |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | A group of post-graduate students, early-career researchers, and engineers, from the ITN-FINESSE network, attended a summer school in Cambridge on the topic of optical fibre technologies in Structural Health Monitoring (SHM). As part of this school, I gave an invited lecture on applications of SHM to heritage masonry structures. ITN-FINESSE is a European Innovative Training Network which aims to achieve "widespread implementation of distributed optical fibre sensor systems for a safer society." This led to a detailed discussion after the lecture with several interested participants who had similar research interests, including requests for follow-up information and potential future collaboration. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | http://itn-finesse.eu/te5/ |