Bridge diagnostics

A team of University of Miami College of Engineering researchers is implementing a self-powered monitor system for bridges, that can continuously check their condition using wireless sensors.

Antonio Nanni, professor and chair of the Department of Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering at the university is heading up the project, which is worth almost $14m.

Nanni and his team plan to place the wireless sensors - some as small as a postage stamp - along strategic points inside the 27-year-old Long Key Bridge in the Florida Keys and on a North West 103rd Street 400m steel overpass that leads into Hialeah, Florida.

The sensors, developed by project collaborators Virginia Tech University and New Jersey-based Physical Acoustics Corporation, record all sorts of data, from vibrations and stretching to acoustic waves and echoes emitted by flaws such as cracks.

Even the alkaline levels in the concrete of bridge supports are being measured.

'The beauty of this project is that the data can be shared with other researchers via a website,' Nanni says.