Smart Structures News & Blog

Smart Infrastructure advancements point to a greater need for Smart Structures...

As with any new technology and construction approach, success comes from properly trained construction personnel. In support of this need, Smart Structures and Gannett Fleming will offer several training module sessions focused on installing, acquiring the data, and reporting and interpreting the results collected from the SmartPile™ System. Training will enable users and installers to be qualified in all aspects of SmartPile™ System deployment, including electronics and software.

It has been often asked:  Does the SmartPile™ System save money on the driven pile Foundation?  And if so, how and where?   Smart Structures has teamed with Armeni Consulting, a specialist in bridge costing and planning, to create costing scenarios to answer this question.  

Recently published research presented at this months’ Florida DOT Geotechnical Research in Progress (GRIP) conference further reinforced the revolutionary benefits and potential of the SmartPile™ System.  Along with GRIP presentations on post grouting drilled shafts and asphalt recovery were updates on the Embedded Data Collector (EDC), Full Dynamic Testing, and Foundation Resistance Factors.   Specific presentations (Titles) included:

Smart Structures has improved upon the SmartPile data collection and reporting software suite with the recent release of SmartPile Review 3.75.

Smart Structures has released a short, narrated demonstration of the SmartPile™ Acquisition. The intent is to demonstrate the power and simplicity of the software. Highlights include radio connection, session configuration, and data logging. Combined with SmartPile Review, Smart Structures has created a simple and powerful software solution for full dynamic pile testing. Below video demo shows the SmartPile Acquisition in action.

Have you ever thought to yourself, why am I paying thousands a year on car Insurance when I’ve never had an accident?  I’ll just drive without insurance.  Everything begins well and there’s certainly more money in the bank account … until the accident, the repairs, the injury medical costs …

The Federal Highway Administration Every Day Counts (EDC) Innovation Initiative was introduced in 2010 as a nationwide program intended to “identify and deploy innovative techniques and technology to meet the needs of the 21st century transportation system and economy”.  The application of field-proven, market ready technologies and shortening project delivery are core elements of this initiative and Design Build is a highlighted approach.

Concrete pile driving is a high shock, high force process … and high stress for the pile driving crew as well. The tradeoffs made by this team include minimizing the time to drive the pile by using maximized driving forces, with the possibility of breaking the pile. The familiar tradeoff is quality versus time. On a pile with no dynamic testing instrumentation, the only quality assurance is the driving criteria, pile inspector blow counts, and visual inspection.  

The hope is that the driving criteria limits the possibly of pile damage… but most of the pile is not visible, and what is happening at the tip of the pile which is well out of the visual inspection capability of the entire crew, is, at best, a BIG guess. Driven foundation quality control should not be one based on hope…   
 
Externally mounted gages can help, but they slow the driving process down and provide no real visibility to the pile tip.  SmartPile™ EDC addresses this problem by making the Pile the sensor.  With gages at the top AND the tip, EDC can monitor stresses and report impending failures.  Tip status has proven particularly critical when punching through various soil and rock strata.

The SmartPile™ Measure Pile Integrity metric uses readings from the Top and Tip of the pile (compression as well as pile pre-stress) and wave dynamics to report and flag the operator when stresses to the pile exceed established limits.  This allows the drive to progress at the fastest speed possible without damaging the pile.  
 
In the event that the tip has encountered problems (i.e. loss of pile pre-stress as indicated by MPI), the crew can now limit any further damage to the pile.  MPI, along with pile capacity, allows the crew to quickly and safely drive a pile to capacity while minimizing stress and physical pile damage.  This process has been successfully demonstrated in Florida on several projects.  

Only the SmartPile™ EDC system can provide this level of monitoring as it is the only Structural Surety System that embeds gages directly into the pile.  

“Superstructures Engineering: Adding sensors and other devices to bridges, tunnels and buildings can turn them into “smart structures” capable of sensing and, in some cases, even responding to problems”

To read the full article: http://www.economist.com/realarticleid.cfm?redirect_id=17647603

The article highlights some of the practical challenges associated with building and bridge monitoring and advances made to address these challenges.