Professor Lord Mair has written an opinion piece for the May issue of the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) international journal Forensic Engineering.
This is the premier forum for the publication of papers on the investigation of constructed facilities and systems that fail to perform, function or operate as intended, resulting in environmental, property, personal or economic damage.
The themed issue brings focus to structural health monitoring and Lord Mair’s article states the case for applying advanced sensing technologies to achieve a full understanding of the performance of infrastructure, both during its construction and throughout its design life. He writes: “Modern infrastructure must be robust, resilient and adaptable to changing patterns – particularly natural disasters and climate change. It also needs to be optimised in terms of efficiency, cost, low carbon dioxide footprint and service quality. It can enormously benefit from being smart, which involves the innovative use of emerging technologies in sensor and data management, particularly in relation to structural health monitoring.”
Lord Mair highlights the significant contribution made by CSIC in developing cutting-edge sensing and data-analysis models that deliver a powerful platform for data to enable smarter and proactive asset decisions, both during new construction and for existing infrastructure. The article describes how the use of sensing and data analysis will enable advanced structural health monitoring and better-informed decision making to transform the future of infrastructure and construction.
“These innovative sensor technologies are vital ingredients for the future of infrastructure. Infrastructure will define the future of society, and infrastructure equipped with modern sensors to enable structural health monitoring is essential to achieve the required transformational impact.”
To read the abstract for Briefing: Advanced sensing technologies for structural health monitoring by Robert J. Mair in Forensic Engineering, Volume 169 Issue 2, May 2016, see:
http://www.icevirtuallibrary.com/doi/full/10.1680/jfoen.16.00013.