A DIGITAL IMAGE CORRELATION SYSTEM FOR ADVANCED PERFORMANCE ASSESSMENT OF STRUCTURES

加拿大的基础设施（桥梁、医院、学校等）是价值超过8500亿美元的宝贵公共资产。为了确保基础设施的安全性和弹性，了解结构在各种危害下的性能（例如，地震、火灾）至关重要。结构的性能和弹性通常是根据位移和损伤特征来测量的。常规测量方法（应变片、手动检查等）是劳动密集型的，使用基于接触的传感器，并且只能在特定和有限的点上提供离散测量。由于这些限制，他们不能准确地量化结构的系统级性能，特别是当应用于先进的动态测试技术（混合模拟和振动台测试）或在极端载荷条件下。该应用涉及获取多相机数字图像相关（DIC）设备，使研究人员能够精确和远程测量大型测试样本整个360 o表面的3D位移和损伤进展，从而实现结构的完整性能评估。该设备是同类设备中第一台专门配置用于低速（例如，火）和高速（例如，地震）荷载条件。这种独特的系统使研究人员能够测量和研究各种单个灾害事件或复杂的多灾害场景下的系统级结构行为（例如，地震后的火灾）到了以前不可能的程度。获得这些设备将大大提高申请人研究项目的竞争优势，以在基础设施弹性领域进行创新。在设备的帮助下，申请人将开发突破性技术，设计方法和评估工具，以推进现有基础设施的维护和维修以及新的高性能基础设施的设计目标。此外，为申请人的研究小组增加设备将丰富学习环境，使HQP能够更好地了解复杂灾害事件下的三维结构性能，从而在结构的设计，安全评估，维护和维修方面提高技能。这些技能受到行业和政府组织的高度重视，有助于HQP未来的成功。此外，设备的便携性及其部署配置的灵活性将为研究团队提供跨不同工程学科和机构合作的独特机会。来自其他项目的教师，包括建筑保护和可持续性工程，路面工程，计算机科学，机械和航空航天工程，已经提供了在研究和培训活动中使用设备的具体计划。

Canada's infrastructure (bridges, hospitals, schools, etc.) represents a valuable public asset worth more than $850 billion. To ensure safety and resilience of the infrastructure, understanding performance of structures under various hazards (e.g., earthquake, fire) is crucial. The performance and resiliency of a structure is typically measured in terms of displacement and damage characterization. Conventional measurement methods (strain gauges, manual inspection, etc.) are labour intensive, use contact-based sensors, and can only provide discrete measurements at specific and limited points. Because of these limitations they cannot accurately quantify system-level performance of structures particularly when applied to advanced dynamic testing techniques (hybrid simulation and shake table tests) or under extreme loading conditions. This application involves acquiring a multi-camera digital image correlation (DIC) equipment that allows researchers to accurately and remotely measure 3D displacements and damage progression of the entire 360o surface of large-scale test specimens enabling complete performance evaluation of structures. The equipment is the first of its kind that is specially configured for shake table testing and hybrid (analytical-experimental) simulation under both low-speed (e.g., fire) and high-speed (e.g., earthquake) loading conditions. This unique system enables researchers to measure and investigate the system-level structural behavior under various individual hazard events or complex multi-hazard scenarios (e.g., fire following earthquake) to a degree that was not possible before. Acquiring the equipment will greatly enhance the competitive edge of the applicants' research programs to innovate in the area of infrastructure resilience. With the help of the equipment the applicants will develop breakthrough technologies, design methods, and assessment tools to advance the goals of maintenance and repair of existing infrastructure and design of new high-performance infrastructure. Also, the addition of the equipment to the applicants' research groups will enrich the learning environment by enabling HQP to better understand performance of structures in 3D under complex hazard events leading to high-level skills in the areas of design, safety assessment, maintenance and repair of structures. These skills are highly valued by industry and government organizations and contribute to the future success of HQP. Additionally, the portability of the equipment and its flexibility in the deployment configuration will provide unique opportunities for the research team to collaborate across different engineering disciplines and institutions. Faculty members from other programs including Architectural Conservation and Sustainability Engineering, Pavement Engineering, Computer Science, and Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering have already provided concrete plans to use the equipment in their research and training activities.