Keynote

"Load testing of bridges"

The lecture shows how load testing is used in bridge engineering. The objectives of the load tests are introcuded and the different types of bridge load testing (soft, diagnostic and proof) are described and ilustrated with several real examples of load testing in existing bridges. Insight on the loading means as well as the measurement techniques used in the different types of tests are also described. Finally, some thoughts are presented about bridge Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) and the future of bridge load testing.

Lecturer: Prof Joan Ramon Casas, from Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya

Monitoring and auscultation

From sensors to useful signals for concrete evaluation and monitoring

Before getting any observable from a measurement, signals have to be recorded after a wave or field has been interacting with concrete. The participants will get an overview of signal sampling and acquisition main features together with an insight of signal processing in the time and frequency domains. Notions about interferometry will be provided in relation to ultrasonic and fibre optic measurements.
Lecturer: Dr Odile Abraham (Université Gustave Eiffel, Ifsttar)

From signals to useful parameters: probability of detection and receiver operating characteristic curves

How to connect parameters from NDT and SHM to reliability and probability assessment (Module 3)? To include NDT and SHM data into this framework, their reliability must be known. The basic tools to do so, probability of detection and receiver operating characteristic curves will be explained, advantages and challenges are discussed and latest results of research are presented.
Lecturer: Prof. Inka Mueller (Bochum University of Applied Sciences)

Demonstrations and exercices on monitoring and auscultation

Fiber Optics: Introduction to the different types of optical sensor technologies and their applications for structural health monitoring of civil engineering structures

Lecturers: Dr Xavier Chapeleau (Université Gustave Eiffel), Prof Joan Ramon Casas Rius (CONSTRUTECH, Universitat Politécnica de Catalunya. BarcelonaTech)

The advantages of fiber optics to monitor temperature and deformation as well as crack opening will be illustrated through various on-site and laboratory experiments. Knowledge and understanding of the transfer function required to recover quantitative information about crack opening will be provided. A lab demonstration will be carried out.
Course contents : presentation of working principle and technologies of optical fiber sensor (40 minutes), demonstration of distributed strain measurement (20 minutes), review of the optical fiber sensor applications for structural health monitoring of civil engineering structures (1 hour)

CWI: Coda wave interferometry a new very sensitive monitoring tool for concrete.

Lecturer: Dr Odile Abraham (Université Gustave Eiffel)

The scattering and reverberation of ultrasonic waves in concrete structure, often viewed as noise in conventional NDT/SHM, is shown here to be of great value to get information on early age damages invisible otherwise. The participants will get to know the basic of CWI signal processing as well as a description about the present state of the art of experimental set-ups with embedded or external sensors. Environmental bias will be highlighted and ways to remove them addressed. The participants will process data using a Jupyter Notebook.

Structural and action models

Assessment of extreme values of effects in structures

The assessment of extreme values of effects in structures will be based on extreme value theory and use of temporal series (coming either from monitoring or calculations). A short overview of statistics of standards will be made (review periods and return values), explanation of extreme value theory and some examples of application. The exercices will be made with R project, based on monitoring data.
Lecturer: Franziska Schmidt (Université Gustave Eiffel)

Computational methods for transient diffusion problems in concrete structures

The lecture contains an overview on computational methods for differential equations, numerical solution strategies, explicit and implicit discretization, boundary conditions and implementation of physical processes that frequently occur in concrete structural materials. Emphasis will be on the finite difference method applied to transport processes, active in porous materials such as concrete, insulation materials, etc. The finite element method will be briefly introduced as well for the sake of comparison.

Typical problems that will be addressed are thermal, chloride ingress modelling, and even moisture diffusion. The course provides demonstrations and exercises on different computational methods for simple differential equations, numerical solution strategies, explicit and implicit discretization, finite difference method, boundary conditions and implementation.

The course is to train students who are beginners and/or have no modelling experience, on how to solve partial differential equations and to become familiar with numerical solution strategies for common physical problems in construction materials. In particular, here two methods will be highlighted : (i) the finite difference method in space with explicit time-stepping, (ii) the finite element method in space with implicit time-stepping.

Key topics: steady state problems, transient problems, heat flow, chloride ingress, implementation using Python within Spyder free software to be downloaded here.

Lecturer: Dr Boumediene Nedjar (Université d'Evry Paris-Saclay)

"Advance of Ultrasonics, Non Ddestructive Testing in Civil Engineering, Artificial Intelligence : the future of NDT"

Lecturer: Prof. Parisa Shokouhi (PennState University, USA)

Reliability, risk and decision analyses

Uncertainty and structural reliability assessment

The lecture of uncertainty and structural reliability assessment contains the fundamentals of uncertainty modelling in civil engineering and the methods of structural reliability and structural system reliability analysis. The uncertainty modelling provides the types of uncertainties and the approaches to model these in a structural reliability analysis. Methods for structural reliability analyses like Monte Carlo Simulation and FORM are introduced and their application in a structural system reliability analysis is demonstrated.
Lecturer: Prof. John Dalsgaard Sørensen (AAU)

Decision and structural information analyses

The lecture focusses decision and information value analyses and builds upon the previous lectures on monitoring, structural model and structural reliability methods. Decision value analyses aim at the maximisation of the expected utility of a built environment system. This expected utility can be influenced by physical and organisational measures (actions) and/or by observations and measurements, such as non-destructive testing results, monitoring, load testing (information). Several decision analyses types for implemented or predicted actions and obtained or predicted information are introduced and examples are presented. In the exercises, students can developed their own decision analysis and can identify efficient information and actions to maximise the expected utility for a practical problem.

Lecturer: Prof. Sebastian Thöns (Lund University)