PFI-RP: Fiber Optic Sensing System for Smart Infrastructure Monitoring

创新伙伴关系-研究伙伴关系（PFI-RP）项目的广泛影响/商业潜力是显著提高预测和管理大型民用基础设施预期寿命的能力。未来的基础设施系统需要智能、快速的传感器来根据设计参数和预测模型评估其性能。该项目将集成更智能的信息收集传感器，这些传感器将专注于新的和现有基础设施的安全、保障、更低的生命周期成本和灾后调查需求。更广泛的影响将是实现“智慧城市”预防灾害和未来城市管理的方法。这将通过使用本项目开发的光纤传感技术积极监测操作条件来实现。将提供培训课程，以培养基础设施工程领域的未来领导者。来自未被充分代表的少数群体的学生将参与研究，并与工业伙伴组织密切合作，将设计师、工程师、运营商和业主聚集在一起。该计划将一根低成本光纤电缆制成数千个应变计、热电偶或加速度计。它采用专利分布式光纤传感系统，在很长的距离（5-10公里）上提供非常高的数据密度（每2厘米）。该系统与现有技术的竞争主要基于其低价格、高数据采集速度和处理后的工程数据的交付。该项目将通过以下方式生产大规模生产的硬件和商业质量的用户界面软件：(i)为低成本的大规模生产系统开发数字化硬件，（ii）集成基于云的数据处理系统，以更有效地获取和解释数据，以及（iii）展示用于实时工程分析的在线数字孪生模型。最终目标是，这种可扩展的分布式监测系统用于大型基础设施监测项目，如桥梁，隧道，地基，水坝，防洪堤，深井以及与工业领导者和美国陆军合作的地面或地下管道。该技术的智能优点，加上来自其他传感和数据分析工具的数据，是通过主动监控操作过程，显著提高预测和管理大型基础设施预期寿命的能力。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Partnerships for Innovation - Research Partnerships (PFI-RP) project is to significantly enhance the capability in predicting and managing life expectancy of large civil infrastructure . The future infrastructure systems need smart and fast sensors to assess their performance against designed parameters and predictive models. The project will integrate smarter information gathering sensors that will focus on safety, security, lower life cycle costs, and post-disaster surveys needs in new and current infrastructure. The broader implication will be in realizing the 'smart city' approach for hazard prevention and future city management. This will be achieved by actively monitoring operational conditions using fiber optic sensing technology developed in this project. Training courses will be offered to develop future leaders in the area of infrastructure engineering. Students from underrepresented minority groups will participate in the research and work closely with the industrial partner organizations bringing together designers, engineers, operators and owners. The proposed project makes a single low-cost fiber optic cable into thousands of strain gauges, thermocouples, or accelerometers. It utilizes a patented distributed fiber optic sensing system, which provides a very high density of data (every 2 cm) over a very long distance (5-10 km). The system competes with existing technologies primarily based on its low price, high data acquisition speed and delivery of processed engineering data. The project will produce mass-producible hardware and commercial quality user interface software by (i) developing digitization hardware for a low-cost, mass production system, (ii) integrating a cloud-based data process system for more efficient data acquisition and interpretation, and (iii) demonstrating online digital twin model for real-time engineering analysis. The ultimate goal is that this scalable distributed monitoring system is used for large infrastructure monitoring projects such as bridges, tunnels, foundations, dams, levees, deep wells, and surface or buried pipelines in partnership with an industrial leader and US Army. The intellectual merit of this technology, coupled with data from other sensing and data analytics tools, is to significantly enhance the capability in predicting and managing large infrastructure's life expectancy by actively monitoring operational processes.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.