Two Innovation Awards Celebrate Major Intelligent Structural Monitoring Project in the UK
July 16 2014 - 2:00PM
The Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) and Chartered Institution
of Highways and Transportation (CIHT) have separately judged and
awarded the A38(M) Tame Valley Viaduct management project with a
2014 Innovation Award. Key to management of the viaduct is the
MISTRAS monitoring system comprising over 1,100 sensors, which is
one of the largest bridge monitoring systems in the United Kingdom.
As a critical link between the West Midlands and the rest of the
UK, the Tame Valley Viaduct is a key section of the highway
network, carrying 620 metres of the A38(M) Aston Expressway between
Birmingham city centre and 'Spaghetti Junction,' Junction 6 of the
M6 motorway.
The judging panel commented that they were impressed by
the innovative use of the latest computing and software technology
to monitor the box girder structure and provide understanding of
its structural behavior whilst safely remaining open to the
public.
The vision of Birmingham City Council shows how investment at
the assessment and design stage leverages major savings during
construction. Key to this was a long term collaborative partnership
contract between the council and Atkins. In addition to saving
millions in reduced strengthening costs, this innovative monitoring
approach will reduce the risks to the workforce working in
difficult conditions inside the box girders.
As part of the Atkins supply chain, MISTRAS Group's UK operation
enabled the partnership by developing and installing in-house,
cutting edge monitoring technology to measure strain, and
displacement in steel webs and stiffeners. The monitoring system's
principal innovation was to apply instantaneous temperature
correction to provide actual dynamic strains and carry out
continuous threshold checks in real time using collected data. This
process provides accurate strain readings to input into technically
excellent structural analysis calculations predefined by Atkins and
acts as a real time safety system alerting
engineers if the strains exceed variable seasonal
thresholds. This was essential for satisfying both
operational and safety requirements required by the
management process. Infrared (IR) cameras are distributed at key
critical locations within the viaducts box girders (connected to
the monitoring system) to allow remote visual inspection inside the
structure to support engineering decision making and mitigate the
time required for expensive internal access.
In addition to strain monitoring, MISTRAS also designed and
installed an elaborate low power IT network to support the 13 IR
cameras and 5 computers inside the bridge which connect to central
website control panel coordinating review of data and system
operation.
This use of innovative monitoring technology pushed beyond
design codes to sustain Birmingham city's accessibility to and from
the national motorway network and to protect and maintain in
service for the future this key highway asset.
Please follow this link to the on-line coverage of the winners
in the Birmingham Post.
http://www.birminghampost.co.uk/business/commercial-property/ice-awards-2014-7095480
Details of the CIHT are covered in the following link.
http://www.ciht.org.uk/en/media-centre/news.cfm/ciht-awards-2014-honours-industry-professionals
About MISTRAS Group
MISTRAS is a leading "one source" global provider of
technology-enabled asset protection solutions used to evaluate the
structural integrity of critical energy, industrial and public
infrastructure. Mission critical services and solutions are
delivered globally and provide customers with asset life extension,
improved productivity and profitability, compliance with government
safety and environmental regulations, and enhanced risk management
operational decisions.
MISTRAS uniquely combines its industry-leading products and
technologies - 24/7 on-line monitoring of critical assets;
mechanical integrity (MI) and non-destructive testing (NDT)
services; destructive testing (DT) services; process and fixed
asset engineering and consulting services; and its world class
enterprise inspection data management and analysis software (PCMS™)
to provide comprehensive and competitive products, systems and
services solutions from a single source provider.
For more information, please visit the company's website at
mistrasgroup.com or contact Nestor S. Makarigakis, Group Director,
Marketing Communications at marcom@mistrasgroup.com.
CONTACT: Nestor S. Makarigakis
Group Director of Marketing Communications
marcom@mistrasgroup.com
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