MODELOS ESTRUCTURALES PARA LA GESTION EFICIENTE DE INFRAESTRUCTURAS: SMART BIM MODELS

BIA2017-86811-C2-1-R

Nombre agencia financiadora Agencia Estatal de Investigación
Acrónimo agencia financiadora AEI
Programa Programa Estatal de I+D+i Orientada a los Retos de la Sociedad
Subprograma Programa Estatal de I+D+i Orientada a los Retos de la Sociedad
Convocatoria Retos Investigación: Proyectos I+D+i
Año convocatoria 2017
Unidad de gestión Plan Estatal de Investigación Científica y Técnica y de Innovación 2013-2016
Centro beneficiario UNIVERSITAT POLITECNICA DE CATALUNYA
Identificador persistente http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100011033

Publicaciones

Found(s) 58 result(s)
Found(s) 2 page(s)

Calibration of the descent local search algorithm parameters using orthogonal arrays

RiuNet. Repositorio Institucional de la Universitat Politécnica de Valéncia
  • Gisbert, Carlos M.
  • Lozano-Galant, Jose A.
  • Paya-Zaforteza, Ignacio
  • Turmo, Jose
[EN] Solving optimization problems using heuristic algorithms requires the selection of its parameters. Traditionally, these parameters are selected by a trial and error process that cannot guarantee the quality of the results obtained because not all the potential combinations of parameters are checked. To fill this gap, this paper proposes the application of Taguchi's orthogonal arrays to calibrate the parameters of a heuristic optimization algorithm (the descent local search algorithm). This process is based on the study of the combinations of discrete values of the heuristic tool parameters and it enables optimization of the heuristic tool performance with a reduced computational effort. To check its efficiency, this methodology is applied to a technical challenge never studied before: the optimization of the tensioning process of cable-stayed bridges. The statistical improvement of the heuristic tool performance is studied by the optimization of the tensioning process of a real cable-stayed bridge. Results show that the proposed calibration technique provided robust values of the objective function (with lower minimum and mean values, and lower standard deviation) with reduced computational cost., The authors are indebted to the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness for the funding provided through the research projects BIA2013-47290-R and BIA2017-86811-C2-1-R founded with FEDER funds and directed by Professor Jose Turmo and through the research project BIA2017-86811-C2-2-R directed by Jose Antonio Lozano-Galant.




Planning low-error SHM strategy by constrained observability method

UPCommons. Portal del coneixement obert de la UPC
  • Peng, Tian
  • Nogal, María
  • Casas Rius, Joan Ramon|||0000-0003-4473-4308
  • Turmo Coderque, José|||0000-0001-5001-2438
Structural identification using dynamical parameters (such as the natural vibration frequencies and mode shapes) is an important issue, especially in bridges or high-rise buildings. However, incorrect decisions could happen on the Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) strategy and the Structural System Identification (SSI) analysis that makes the sometimes expensive and time-consuming process useless due to the large uncertainty of the resulting estimations. This paper discusses the role of the SHM strategy and the SSI analysis based on the constrained observability method (COM) and decision trees (DT) in reducing the estimation error. Here, the COM uses subsets of natural frequencies and/or modal-shapes to deal with the nonlinearity of the SSI derived from the operational aspects of the methods, and combines the unknown items including frequencies and mode shapes into an optimization process. Next, a decision-support tool based on decision trees is applied to help engineers to establish the best SHM + SSI strategy yielding the most accurate estimations. The principle and steps of this new method, the combination of constrained observability m,ethod and decision trees, are presented for the first time. After that, a numerical model of a bridge case is used to show how to choose the optimal strategy, when factors such as the structure layout, span length, measurement set, and parameters of the COM are included as decision variables. The importance ranking of these four factors is the layout, measurement set, parameters of the COM, and length through the sensitivity analysis of the COM estimated. Last, a real bridge is used to validate this methodology under the undamaged and damaged scenarios by comparing an Error Index, which shows the optimal SHM + SSI strategy works well no matter the bridge is damaged or not. The presented analysis leads to significant insights that can help the decision-making of the optimal SHM + SSI strategy, avoiding erroneous decisions if this tool is not used beforehand., This work was mainly funded by the Chinese Scholarship Council through its program (No. 201808390083), which has been provided to Mrs. Peng. It is also to be noted that this work was partially funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness for the funding provided through the research projects BIA2013-47290-R and BIA2017-86811-C2-1-R founded with FEDER funds and directed by Professor José Turmo. Authors are also indebted to the Secretaria d’ Universitats i Recerca de la Generalitat de Catalunya for the funding provided through Agaur (2017 SGR 1481)., Peer Reviewed




Application of low-cost sensors for accurate ambient temperature monitoring

UPCommons. Portal del coneixement obert de la UPC
  • Mobaraki, Behnam
  • Komarizadehasl, Seyedmilad|||0000-0002-9010-2611
  • Castilla Pascual, Francisco Javier
  • Lozano Galant, José Antonio
In structures with reduced monitoring budgets, the high cost of commercial metering devices is always an obstacle for monitoring structural health. This might be an issue when temperatures must be measured for both structural and environmental reasons. To fill this gap, in this paper, a novel monitoring system is proposed for the accurate measurement of indoor temperature in buildings. This protocol is characterized by its generality, as it can be easily adapted to measure any structural or environmental parameters on site. The proposed monitoring system uses from one to eight low-cost sensors to obtain multiple measurements of the ambient temperatures. The accuracy ranges of the developed monitoring systems with different numbers of sensors are statistically analysed. The results indicate that the discrepancy of the measurements decreases with the increase in the number of sensors, as the maximum standard deviation of 10 sensors (0.42) decreases to 0.32 and 0.27 for clusters of 20 and 30 sensors, respectively., This research was funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (grant number BIA2013-47290-R, BIA2017-86811-C2-1-R, and BIA2017-86811-C2-2-R) and by the Universidad de Castilla La Mancha (grant number 2018-COB-9092)., Peer Reviewed




The dynamic assessment of structural condition by measurement error-minimizing observability method

UPCommons. Portal del coneixement obert de la UPC
  • Peng, Tian
  • Casas Rius, Joan Ramon|||0000-0003-4473-4308
  • Turmo Coderque, José|||0000-0001-5001-2438
The structural identification using dynamic parameters (such as the natural vibration frequencies and mode shapes of the structure) is an important issue especially in slender structures such as long-span bridges or high-rise buildings. It is the most popular way to assess the structural condition along the service life . This article presents a new approach, under the framework of Structural System Identificaction by Observability Method (OM), to perform the structural system identification. The method is able of determining which actual structural properties (like Young’s modulus, area, inertia, mass) can be uniquely detected when an appropriate subset of mode-shapes and frequencies of the whole structure is provided. Error-Minimizing Observability Method (EMOM), which separates and merges the error items included in frequencies and mode shapes, is used to get an accurate estimate of element properties. A key issue in this method is how to choose the weight factor of frequencies and mode-shapes, when minimizing the objective function. This is still an unsolved problem and will pose a big influence on the results. Hence, a 2-dof example is illustrated in the paper dealing with this issue. . From the analysis of frequencies and mode-shapes with the best weight factor, it is found that through the fine calculation, the weight factor produced by the Bayesian method fits well with the one derived with the regular one-by-one calculation. This provides a criteria to choose the weight factor directly from the experimental samples by the Bayesian approach, thus decreasing the complexity and the computing time., This work is funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness projects (BIA2013-47290-R and BIA2017-86811-C2-1-R) and China Scholarship Council (No. 201808390083). The financial support is greatly appreciated.




Dynamic observability method for durability assessment considering measurement noise

UPCommons. Portal del coneixement obert de la UPC
  • Peng, Tian
  • Casas Rius, Joan Ramon|||0000-0003-4473-4308
  • Turmo Coderque, José|||0000-0001-5001-2438
Due to the inevitable degradation of material properties in structures in daily use, such as stiffness degradation due to cracking in concrete elements, their durability will definitely be influenced, and their serviceability and safety could be in danger. Thus, understanding and identifying the change in the structural parameters provides new approaches to evaluate their durability. Structural system identification by dynamic observability method, which is using subsets of masses, natural frequencies and modal shapes, is a powerful tool to detect the change of structural parameters. Taking into account the presence of noise in the measurement data in real world structures, this method establishes the relative dynamic equation with the error separation items. The equation is solved by error minimization of an objective function combining the measured frequencies and mode shapes through the parameter MAC (Modal Assurance Criterion). Additionally, the algorithms and the steps are introduced based on the dynamic eigenvalue equation, which can fully demonstrate the performance of observability techniques. The present paper provides an example on how to successfully identify structural parameters. Its suitability for practical applications is demonstrated in a large frame structure. The result is a much more accurate identification of the parameters involved in the durability of the structure even in the case of noise-corrupted measurement signals., The authors are indebted to the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness for the funding provided through the research projects BIA2013-47290-R and BIA2017-86811-C2-1-R founded with FEDER funds and directed by Professor José Turmo and through the research project BIA2017-86811-C2-2-R. It is also to be noted that the part of this work was done included an exchange of faculty financed by the Chinese government to Mrs.Peng thorough the program (No. 201808390083).




Benchmark model updating for cable stayed bridges

UPCommons. Portal del coneixement obert de la UPC
  • Lai, Minghui
  • Ma, Haiying
  • Sun, Pingkuan
  • Turmo Coderque, José|||0000-0001-5001-2438
The use of benchmark model aims to establish a model with sufficient accuracy to reflect structure performance. Its purpose is seeking differences through repeated studying on problems using common FE model. In the paper, a novel approach is proposed for the benchmark model updating of a cable stayed bridge. It is based on the interaction of numerical analysis program and FE analysis program with updating model parameters from loop iteration operation. Shell elements and beam elements are both used, and the natural vibration frequencies and mode shapes from plate-shell element model are determined. These are used to modify the parameters used in a spine-beam element model, and to simplify a complicated FE model as a benchmark model. The genetic algorithm (GA) is introduced to complete the calculation process of loop iteration. Finally, an updated benchmark model is proposed for cable stayed bridges., The authors are indebted to research funding provided by the National Key R&D Program of China (2017YFC1500603), and to the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness and FEDER funds for the funding provided through the research project BIA2017-86811-C2-1-R.




A novel wireless low-cost inclinometer made from combining the measurements of multiple MEMS gyroscopes and accelerometers

UPCommons. Portal del coneixement obert de la UPC
  • Komarizadehasl, Seyedmilad|||0000-0002-9010-2611
  • Komary, Mahyad|||0000-0002-3219-2970
  • Alahmad, Ahmad|||0000-0002-6127-1897
  • Lozano Galant, José Antonio
  • Ramos Schneider, Gonzalo|||0000-0002-7263-8471
  • Turmo Coderque, José|||0000-0001-5001-2438
Structural damage detection using inclinometers is getting wide attention from researchers. However, the high price of inclinometers limits this system to unique structures with a relatively high structural health monitoring (SHM) budget. This paper presents a novel low-cost inclinometer, the low-cost adaptable reliable angle-meter (LARA), which combines five gyroscopes and five accelerometers to measure inclination. LARA incorporates Internet of Things (IoT)-based microcontroller technology enabling wireless data streaming and free commercial software for data acquisition. This paper investigates the accuracy, resolution, Allan variance and standard deviation of LARA produced with a different number of combined circuits, including an accelerometer and a gyroscope. To validate the accuracy and resolution of the developed device, its results are compared with those obtained by numerical slope calculations and a commercial inclinometer (HI-INC) in laboratory conditions. The results of a load test experiment on a simple beam model show the high accuracy of LARA (0.003 degrees). The affordability and high accuracy of LARA make it applicable for structural damage detection on bridges using inclinometers., The authors are indebted to the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness for the funding provided through the research project BIA2017-86811-C2-1-R directed by José Turmo and BIA2017-86811-C2-2-R. All these projects are funded with FEDER funds. The authors are also indebted to the Secretaria d’ Universitats i Recerca de la Generalitat de Catalunya, Catalunya, Spain for the funding provided through Agaur (2017 SGR 1482). It is also to be noted that funding for this research has been provided for Seyedmilad Komarizadehasl by Spanish Agencia Estatal de Investigación del Ministerio de Ciencia Innovación y Universidades grant and the Fondo Social Europeo grant (PRE2018-083238)., Peer Reviewed




Low-cost wireless structural health monitoring of bridges

UPCommons. Portal del coneixement obert de la UPC
  • Komarizadehasl, Seyedmilad|||0000-0002-9010-2611
  • Lozano Galant, Fidel|||0000-0001-9272-6172
  • Lozano Galant, José Antonio
  • Ramos Schneider, Gonzalo|||0000-0002-7263-8471
  • Turmo Coderque, José|||0000-0001-5001-2438
Nowadays, low-cost accelerometers are getting more attention from civil engineers to make Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) applications affordable and applicable to a broader range of structures. The present accelerometers based on Arduino or Raspberry Pi technologies in the literature share some of the following drawbacks: (1) high Noise Density (ND), (2) low sampling frequency, (3) not having the Internet’s timestamp with microsecond resolution, (4) not being used in experimental eigenfrequency analysis of a flexible and a less-flexible bridge, and (5) synchronization issues. To solve these problems, a new low-cost triaxial accelerometer based on Arduino technology is presented in this work (Low-cost Adaptable Reliable Accelerometer—LARA). Laboratory test results show that LARA has a ND of 51 µg/vHz, and a frequency sampling speed of 333 Hz. In addition, LARA has been applied to the eigenfrequency analysis of a short-span footbridge and its results are compared with those of a high-precision commercial sensor., The authors are indebted to the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness for the funding provided through the research project BIA2017-86811-C2-1-R directed by José Turmo and BIA2017-86811-C2-2-R. All these projects are funded with FEDER funds. The authors are also indebted to the Secretaria d’ Universitats i Recerca de la Generalitat de Catalunya, Catalunya, Spain, for the funding provided through Agaur (2017 SGR 1482). It is also to be noted that funding for this research has been provided for the Seyedmilad Komarizadehasl by the Spanish Agencia Estatal de Investigación del Ministerio de Ciencia Innovación y Universidades grant and the Fondo Social Europeo grant (PRE2018-083238)., Peer Reviewed




Study of Iranian engineering educational system

UPCommons. Portal del coneixement obert de la UPC
  • Mobaraki, Behnam
  • Komarizadehasl, Seyedmilad|||0000-0002-9010-2611
  • Castilla Pascual, Francisco Javier
  • Lozano Galant, José Antonio
One of the main features of each society and civilization is the importance of educational system. All countries around the world have used specific educational planning for growing their people as well as developing the country. This paper has comprehensively evaluated civil engineering educational program in universities oflran. In the current system, tendencies of graduates are more toward education of engineers who are ready to have academic jobs but not operative jobs such as increasing and improving national production or meeting technical needs of country. One strategy that can be used in this context is having long term planning for civil engineering students, which includes increasing the budget for establishment of equipped laboratories and at the same time enhancing professional job opportunities., The authors are indebted to the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness for the funding provided through the research projects BIA2013-47290-R, BIA2017-86811-C2-l-R, and BIA2017-8681 l-C2-2-R founded with FEDER funds It is also to be noted that funding for this research has been provided to Mr. BEHNAM MOBARAKI by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness through its program for his Ph.D. It is also to be noted that part of this work was done through grant number 2018-COB-9092 from Universidad de Castilla La Mancha (UCLM).




Strain-monitoring of a concrete tunnel lining with distributed optical fiber sensors

UPCommons. Portal del coneixement obert de la UPC
  • Gómez i Esteve, Judit
  • Casas Rius, Joan Ramon|||0000-0003-4473-4308
  • Villalba Herrero, Sergi|||0000-0001-6535-6372
Despite their advantageous performance and reliability, distributed optical fiber sensors (DOFS) still constitute a recent technology and their reliability and accuracy when applied to real world structures is still under probation since there is still room for improvement and for widening their applicability. In general, standardized guidelines need to be developed to ensure success in every DOFSs deployment regarding fiber bonding to the structure, temperature affections on readings, postprocessing of reading anomalies, among other factors. However, real applications, as in the one presented in this paper, show that DOFS are anticipated to have a very important role in Structural Health Management of tunnels in the near future if correctly understood and developed. This paper addresses the implementation of a Distributed Optical Fiber Sensor system (DOFS) to the existing TMB L-9 metro tunnel in Barcelona for Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) purposes as the former could potentially be affected by the construction of a nearby residential building. The results show a good performance of this novel technique in the monitoring of strain along the whole affected sections during the construction of a nearby building. In fact, the DOFS readings reproduce very accurately the tunnel deformation process. The tendencies observed by the sensors were forecasted by a simple theoretical model. The monitoring of the strain at many points in the critical section allowed to conclude that the nearby construction only slightly affected the lining stresses and that safety was guaranteed during the whole monitored period., The authors thank COTCA and TMB respectively for providing access to the necessary data regarding the case study and supporting this research. We would also like to thank Ph D student Mattia F. Bado who provided insight that greatly assisted this research during the data post-processing phase. The authors are indebted to the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness for the funding provided through the research project BIA2017-86811-C2-1-R. All these projects are funded with FEDER funds. Authors are also indebted to the Secretaria d’ Universitats i Recerca de la Generalitat de Catalunya for the funding provided through Agaur (2017 SGR 1481).




Experimental verification of a novel accelerometer intended for structural health monitoring of bridges

UPCommons. Portal del coneixement obert de la UPC
  • Komarizadehasl, Seyedmilad|||0000-0002-9010-2611
  • Alahmad, Ahmad|||0000-0002-6127-1897
  • Lozano Galant, José Antonio
  • Torralba Mendiola, Víctor
  • Ramos Schneider, Gonzalo|||0000-0002-7263-8471
  • Turmo Coderque, José|||0000-0001-5001-2438
Bridges can be considered one of the most critical infrastructures of any country. Subsequently, their health state assessment is of great importance. However, durable monitoring of bridges can be highly costly and time-consuming. In addition, the current Structural Health Monitoring applications are only applicable to individual structures with a high budget for their health assessment. For a long-term economic evaluation of bridges, low-cost sensors are currently being developed for SHM applications. However, their resolution and accuracy are not yet suitable for structural system identifications. For that, a novel accelerometer based on Arduino technology is introduced in this work. Experiments show that this accelerometer has a better resolution. Illustrated test results of this paper on a frequency range of 0.5 to 8 Hz validate the performance of the proposed accelerometer., The authors are indebted to the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness for the funding provided through the research project BIA2017-86811-C2-1-R directed by José Turmo and BIA2017-86811-C2-2-R. All these projects are funded with FEDER funds. Authors are also indebted to the Secretaria d' Universitats i Recerca de la Generalitat de Catalunya, Catalunya, Spain for the funding provided through Agaur (2017 SGR 1482). It is also to be noted that funding for this research has been provided for Seyedmilad Komarizadehasl by Spanish Agencia Estatal de Investigación del Ministerio de Ciencia Innovación y Universidades grant and the Fondo Social Europeo grant (PRE2018-083238).




Calibration of the descent local search algorithm parameters using orthogonal arrays

UPCommons. Portal del coneixement obert de la UPC
  • Gisbert Doménech, Carlos Miguel
  • Lozano Galant, José Antonio
  • Payá Zaforteza, Ignacio Javier
  • Turmo Coderque, José|||0000-0001-5001-2438
This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: [ Gisbert, CM, Lozano‐Galant, JA, Paya‐Zaforteza, I, Turmo, J. Calibration of the descent local search algorithm parameters using orthogonal arrays. Comput Aided Civ Inf. 2020; 35: 997– 1008. https://doi.org/10.1111/mice.12545 ], which has been published in final form at https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/mice.12545. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Self-Archiving., Solving optimization problems using heuristic algorithms requires the selection of its parameters. Traditionally, these parameters are selected by a trial and error process that cannot guarantee the quality of the results obtained because not all the potential combinations of parameters are checked. To fill this gap, this paper proposes the application of Taguchi's orthogonal arrays to calibrate the parameters of a heuristic optimization algorithm (the descent local search algorithm). This process is based on the study of the combinations of discrete values of the heuristic tool parameters and it enables optimization of the heuristic tool performance with a reduced computational effort. To check its efficiency, this methodology is applied to a technical challenge never studied before: the optimization of the tensioning process of cable-stayed bridges. The statistical improvement of the heuristic tool performance is studied by the optimization of the tensioning process of a real cable-stayed bridge. Results show that the proposed calibration technique provided robust values of the objective function (with lower minimum and mean values, and lower standard deviation) with reduced computational cost, The authors are indebted to the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness for the funding provided through the research projects BIA2013-47290-R and BIA2017-86811-C2-1-R founded with FEDER funds and directed by Professor José Turmo and through the research project BIA2017-86811-C2-2-R directed by José Antonio Lozano-Galant., Peer Reviewed




Acceleration data quality assessment for bridge structural health monitoring via statistical and deep-learning approach

UPCommons. Portal del coneixement obert de la UPC
  • Zhong, Huaqiang
  • Sun, Limin
  • Turmo Coderque, José|||0000-0001-5001-2438
  • Xia, Ye
In recent years, the safety and comfort problems of bridges are not uncommon, and the operating conditions of in-service bridges have received widespread attention. Many large-span key bridges have installed structural health monitoring systems and collected massive amounts of data. Monitoring data is the basis of structural damage identification and performance evaluation, and it is of great significance to analyze and evaluate its quality. This paper takes the acceleration monitoring data of the main girder and arch rib of a long-span arch bridge as the research object, analyzes and summarizes the statistical characteristics of the data, summarizes 6 abnormal data conditions, and proposes a data quality evaluation method of convolutional neural network. This paper conducts frequency statistics on the acceleration vibration amplitude of the bridge in December 2018 in hours. In order to highlight the end effect of frequency statistics, the whole is amplified and used as network input for training and data quality evaluation. The results are good. It provides another new method for structural monitoring data quality evaluation and abnormal data elimination., This paper is supported by the National Key R&D Program of China (2019YFB1600702), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (51978508), and the Ministry of Hosing and Urban-Rural Development (K2019690). The authors are indebted to the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness for the funding provided through the research project BIA2017-86811-C2-1-R directed by José Turmo.




Accelerated viaduct construction

UPCommons. Portal del coneixement obert de la UPC
  • Turmo Coderque, José|||0000-0001-5001-2438
Modern geometrical requirements for high capacity ground infrastructure, as highways or high speed train lines, imply increasing number of long tunnels and viaducts in mountainous countries. Moreover, for the sake of the environment, only some selected construction methods are eligible for sensitive areas. Among them, a very popular one for medium span concrete viaducts is the span by span construction with movable scaffolding system. The method can be easily adapted to any geometry and, from an environmental point of view, only the shadow of the deck is spoilt during construction periods. Since its first application in the Kettiger Hangbrücke, (Germany) in 1959, this construction method has been applied extensively all around the world. The paper will describe the pros and cons of the method and will explain in detail the last developments made in order to reduce to a minimum the critical path, increasing its competitiveness. New construction sequences, non-standardized structural details, static and dynamic tests, finite element model analysis and recent already built examples will be described to illustrate the possibilities of the method., The author are indebted to the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness for the funding provided through the research project BIA2017-86811-C2, funded with FEDER funds. Authors are also indebted to the Secretaria d’ Universitats i Recerca de la Generalitat de Catalunya, Spain, for the funding provided through Agaur (2017 SGR 1481). The author wants to thank also Mr. Roberto Soto, from Mecanotubo S.A., for all his support.




Traffic road emission estimation through visual programming algorithms and building information models: a case study

UPCommons. Portal del coneixement obert de la UPC
  • Collao Lazo, Jorge Alejandro
  • Ma, Haiying
  • Lozano Galant, José Antonio
  • Turmo Coderque, José|||0000-0001-5001-2438
Emissions from transportation have a severe impact on the current climate crisis. Therefore, the estimation of these pollutants requires precise measurements that integrate both traffic and vehicle fleet information within a specific country or area. However, the current estimation tools continue using vehicle fleet standards based on recommendations or local studies. A problem for the current estimation models arises due to the difficulty of centralizing the large number of vehicle statistics. This article has taken advantage of the capabilities of both visual programming tools and building information modeling (BIM) to centralize databases from different sources, generating a model that integrates current traffic data and vehicle fleet statistics. The proposed platform estimates emissions and the carbon footprint using TIER 1 emission factors recommended by the European Environmental Agency (EEA). This platform has been successfully applied to a case study to estimate the carbon footprint of the B-20 road in Barcelona, using current vehicle restriction scenarios. This case study presents a maximum difference of -2.72% compared with the estimations made by another similar report. This proposed platform more completely automates the communication among the equations and databases required to estimate traffic road emissions., This work was supported in part by the National Agency for Research and Development (ANID) for the Scholarship Program ``DOCTORADO BECAS CHILE/2019'' Folio under Grant 72200098, in part by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness and the FEDER fund through the projects under Grant BIA2017-86811-C2-1-R (directed by Jose Turmo) and Grant BIA2017-86811-C2-2-R, in part by the Secretaria d' Universitats i Recerca of the Generalitat de Catalunya through Agaur under Grant 2017 SGR 1481, and in part by the Technology Cooperation Project of Shanghai Qizhi Institute under Grant SYXF0120020109., Peer Reviewed




Practical application of low-cost sensors for static tests

UPCommons. Portal del coneixement obert de la UPC
  • Komarizadehasl, Seyedmilad|||0000-0002-9010-2611
  • Mobaraki, Behnam
  • Lozano Galant, José Antonio
  • Turmo Coderque, José|||0000-0001-5001-2438
Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) is essential to assess the accuracy of durability predictions of structures. Using low-cost sensors on structural evaluation has gained significant attention compare to high-cost sensors. Although these may not be as accurate and sensitive as the expensive electronic devices, with efficient code and right use, there is a possibility of getting useful information from them. These sensors can vary based on their functionality and the measurements they provide. For example, one is highly sensitive to the light of its environment while the other kind would give different results in different temperatures. In this paper, three different displacement measuring sensors have been studied. An ultrasonic sensor (HC-SR04) and two different types of laser sensors (VL53L0X and VL53L1X) are investigated in the paper. An Arduino Mega has captured their measured data, and a raspberry pi has made the acquisition. Not only issues regarding coding and placing of these sensors have been presented ultimately, but precise solutions for the aforementioned problems as well as an efficient way of assembling all the sensors are also presented in this paper. The data generated from these electronic devices can be used for Structural Health Monitoring applications., The authors are indebted to the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness for the funding provided through the research project BIA2017-86811-C2-1-R directed by José Turmo and BIA2017-86811-C2-2-R, directed by Jose Antonio Lozano-Galant. All these projects are funded with FEDER funds. Authors are also indebted to the Secretaria d’ Universitats i Recerca de la Generalitat de Catalunya for the funding provided through Agaur (2017 SGR 1482). It is also to be noted that funding for this research has been provided for MR. SEYEDMILAD KOMARIZADEHASL by Agencia Estatal de Investigación del Ministerio de Ciencia Innovación y Universidades grant and the Fondo Social Europeo grant (PRE2018-083238).




Using few accelerometer for improving the resolution and accuracy of low-cost accelerometers

UPCommons. Portal del coneixement obert de la UPC
  • Komarizadehasl, Seyedmilad|||0000-0002-9010-2611
  • Komary, Mahyad|||0000-0002-3219-2970
  • Turmo Coderque, José|||0000-0001-5001-2438
  • Lozano Galant, Fidel|||0000-0001-9272-6172
  • Lozano Galant, Fidel|||0000-0001-9272-6172
  • Lozano Galant, José Antonio
Since the Structural Health Monitoring applications are getting significant attention from scien-tists and engineers, a new system has been introduced. This device is capable of acquiring vibrations with a sampling frequency of up to 85 Hz. In this paper, the effect of having several synchronized accelerometers on a rigid plate for improving the resolution and accuracy of a new vibration acquisition system is investigated.
An experimental test has been carried out to investigate the reliability of the claimed theory. Accelerometers made from combining one, two, three, four and five low-cost low-resolution accelerometers are made and tested on a shaking table. The overall results show that the number of combined accelerometers has an indirect ratio with the obtained noise density of the final product., The authors are indebted to the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness for the funding provided through the research project BIA2017-86811-C2-1-R directed by José Turmo and BIA2017-86811-C2-2-R, directed by Jose Antonio Lozano-Galant. All these projects are funded with FEDER funds. Authors are also indebted to the Secretaria d’ Universitats i Recerca de la Gener-alitat de Catalunya, Catalunya, Spain for the funding provided through Agaur (2017 SGR 1482). It is also to be noted that funding for this research has been provided for Seyedmilad Komarizadehasl by Spanish Agencia Estatal de Investigación del Ministerio de Ciencia Innova-ción y Universidades grant and the Fondo Social Europeo grant (PRE2018-083238).




Evaluation of low-cost angular measuring sensors

UPCommons. Portal del coneixement obert de la UPC
  • Komarizadehasl, Seyedmilad|||0000-0002-9010-2611
  • Mobaraki, Behnam
  • Lozano Galant, José Antonio
  • Turmo Coderque, José|||0000-0001-5001-2438
One of the main issues for performing Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) is the high cost of metering devices. In order to make it applicable to the conventional structures with low defined budgets, low-cost sensors have been widely utilized. In this paper, the characteristics of a low-cost circuit (MPU9250) with low power consumption for measuring angles are studied. This circuit is composed of an accelerometer, a gyroscope, and a magnetometer. There are two ways of coding and using this sensor for angular measurements. In the first application, the accelerometer and the gyroscope of the circuit are only used to get angle around X and Y-axis. In the second application, the gyroscope is going to be added to the other two sensors in order to get angular measurements of all axis. The data accuracy plus the advantages and disadvantages of the response of this circuit regarding each code has been studied in this paper by using the codded sensor in some experiments. Although the second application showed less error from the expected results, it was less stable than the first application., The authors are indebted to the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness for the funding provided through the research project BIA2017-86811-C2-1-R directed by José Turmo and BIA2017-86811-C2-2-R, directed by Jose Antonio Lozano-Galant. All these projects are funded with FEDER funds. Authors are also indebted to the Secretaria d’Universitats i Recerca de la Generalitat de Catalunya for the funding provided through Agaur (2017 SGR 1481). It is also to be noted that funding for this research has been provided for MR. SEYEDMILAD KOMARIZADEHASL by Agencia Estatal de Investigación del Ministerio de Ciencia Innovación y Universidades grant and the Fondo Social Europeo grant (PRE2018-083238).




Use of fiber reinforced concrete in compression slabs of beam-and-slab decks for new bridge constructions

UPCommons. Portal del coneixement obert de la UPC
  • Domingo Tarancón, Magí|||0000-0002-5403-5204
  • Ramos Schneider, Gonzalo|||0000-0002-7263-8471
  • Aparicio Bengoechea, Ángel Carlos|||0000-0002-3029-9491
In the last decade, Fiber Reinforced Concrete (FRC) has allowed engineers to enhance the performance of different structural concrete members. From previous experiences in building flat slabs, it has been found that FRC members are capable of withstanding loads with either none or very reduced amounts of reinforcement. It has been proven that FRC enhances the resistance capabilities of flat elements under common internal forces (bending moment, one-way shear, punching, etc.). Given the compressive behavior of top slabs in bridge decks, the amount of minimum reinforcement placed in it might be higher than required by structural analysis. Considering the use of FRC in top slabs, an increased durability and/or an important reduction of reinforcement quantities could be achieved. In this research the results of the structural behavior of a top slab for a beam-and-slab deck considering the use of FRC are presented. It has been accounted for specific bridge loads and geometry layouts not found in other structural elements, such as building slabs. The structural analysis is done by means of global numerical model of the bridge, which has led to a combined transversal flexure and compressions in the longitudinal direction of the slab. The results show that minimum reinforcement at ultimate load can be slightly reduced (ranging from 12 to 18%) while providing an enhanced cracking control, which would turn into a durability performance increase of the slab., The first author would like to acknowledge the funding support provided by the Spanish Ministry of Uni-versities through the PhD grant program FPU (Formación de Profesorado Universitario). Additionally, all the authors are indebted to the Secretaria d’Universitats i Recerca of the Generalitat de Catalunya for the funding provided through AGAUR (2017 SGR 1481) and to the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness and the FEDER for the funding provided through the project BIA2017-86811-C2-1-R.




A review on low-cost sensors compatible with open-source platforms used for life-cycle monitoring of civil structures

UPCommons. Portal del coneixement obert de la UPC
  • Komary, Mahyad|||0000-0002-3219-2970
  • Komarizadehasl, Seyedmilad|||0000-0002-9010-2611
  • Turmo Coderque, José|||0000-0001-5001-2438
  • Lozano Galant, Fidel|||0000-0001-9272-6172
  • Lozano Galant, José Antonio
  • Xia, Ye
Lately, the need for adopting sensors in buildings and infrastructures for monitoring and inspection of the health state of those structures is increasing. This demand is due to the increasing age of the structural stock worldwide. Consequently, more economical ways of Structural Health Monitoring applications are getting huge attention. This paper presents and evaluates several low-cost electronics compatible with open-source digital technologies for static and dynamic Structural System Identification applications. Firstly, an open-source microcontroller (Arduino), the main programable logic controller, and a Raspberry pi, a small single-board computer, are introduced. Secondly, various economic sensors with diverse measurement applications, such as ultrasonic and laser ranging, acceleration, temperature, and humidity, are discussed. Thirdly, multiple experiments in different controlled ambients are applied to assess and compare their tolerances as well as advantages and disadvantages of their use, among their price. Some problems with the Arduino codes and sensor positions emerged during the installation of the sensors and the data collection process. Finally, to attain an effective manner of using these low-cost electronics, this article offers answers to the issues faced., The authors are indebted to the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness for the funding provided through the research project BIA2017-86811-C2-1-R directed by José Turmo.This project was funded with FEDER funds. Authors are also indebted to the Secre-taria d’ Universitats i Recerca de la Generalitat de Catalunya for the funding provided through Agaur (2017 SGR 1481). It is also to be noted that funding for this research has been provided for MR. Seyedmilad Komarizadehasl by Agencia Estatal de Investigación del Ministerio de Ciencia Innovación y Universidades grant and the Fondo Social Europeo grant (PRE2018-083238).




Cost-effective measurement equipment and data analysis tool for structural health monitoring. Case study: metro railway bridge

UPCommons. Portal del coneixement obert de la UPC
  • Sierra, Pablo Leonel|||0000-0001-6440-2832
  • Chacón Flores, Rolando Antonio|||0000-0002-7259-5635
  • Martínez García, Javier|||0000-0001-9178-088X
Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) of bridges is getting special attention of infrastructure management agencies, due to its success in minimizing maintenance costs. The acquisition of structural behaviour data and its analysis to assess the structural condition are critical tasks of SHM. In this paper both are addressed. A cost - effective measurement equipment based on triaxial accelerometers is developed. It is coupled with an operational modal analysis tool that allows extracting natural frequencies, mode shapes and damping under operational loads. Both, hardware and software, are tested in a case study of a railway bridge of the Madrid Metro network. Other measurement equipments are deployed to compare results. Natural frequencies are calculated, showing a good correlation between the different systems. The obtained results provide relevant information about the global behaviour of the structure. Therefore, the proposed cost - effective solution could be used in a SHM system for continuous bridge monitoring., The first author would like to acknowledge the funding support provided by the Spanish Ministry of Uni-versities through the PhD grant program FPU (Formación de Profesorado Universitario). Additionally, all the authors are indebted to the Secretaria d’Universitats i Recerca of the Generalitat de Catalunya for the funding provided through AGAUR (2017 SGR 1481) and to the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness and the FEDER for the funding provided through the project BIA2017-86811-C2-1-R.




Environmental monitoring system based on low-cost sensors

UPCommons. Portal del coneixement obert de la UPC
  • Mobaraki, Behnam
  • Komarizadehasl, Seyedmilad|||0000-0002-9010-2611
  • Castilla Pascual, Francisco Javier
  • Lozano Galant, José Antonio
Temperature and humidity measurements provide useful information on multiple areas of civil engineering application such as Structural Health Monitoring (SHM), Structural System Identification (SSI) and structures rehabilitation. Majority of the existing commercial systems are so costly and also these measurement paradigms need many reference spots for a full-scale structure. The aforesaid paradigms are based on collecting data through smart devices, transferring information to each other and in the final stage processing the obtained information collaboratively through cloud computing or the others technologies. Taking into account the above information and obstacles, utilizing the Open Source Platforms (OSP) microcontrollers like Arduino as well as low cost sensors are attracting more and more attention. This paper gives a comprehensive information about the most determinant aspects of the aforementioned kits in terms of their pros and cons, installation procedure, communication protocol, number of the required connections and specific characteristics of the data acquisition system., The authors are indebted to the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness for the funding provided through the research projects BIA2013-47290-R, BIA2017-86811-C2-1-R, and BIA2017-86811-C2-2-R founded with FEDER funds It is also to be noted that funding for this research has been provided to Mr. BEHNAM MOBARAKI by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness through its program for his Ph.D. It is also to be noted that part of this work was done through grant number 2018-COB-9092 from Universidad de Castilla La Mancha (UCLM).




Low-cost accurate acceleration acquisition sensor

UPCommons. Portal del coneixement obert de la UPC
  • Komarizadehasl, Seyedmilad|||0000-0002-9010-2611
  • Komary, Mahyad|||0000-0002-3219-2970
  • Turmo Coderque, José|||0000-0001-5001-2438
  • Torralba Mendiola, Víctor
  • Lozano Galant, Fidel|||0000-0001-9272-6172
  • Lozano Galant, José Antonio
Nowadays, accelerometers are used widely by civil engineers for Structural Health Monitor-ing (SHM) purposes. The expensive cost of acquisition equipment and accelerometers have made the SHM applications unavailable for structures with relatively low budgets for their assessment.
A new accelerometer has been proposed in this paper. This accelerometer is a uniaxial accelerometer with a sampling frequency of up to 85Hz. Although the proposed accelerometer is 17 times cheaper than a traditional accelerometer (PCB 393A03), it provides a better resolution and accuracy at the same time. An experimental test has been carried out for comparing the proposed accelerometer with PCB 393A03 sensor., The authors are indebted to the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness for the funding pro-vided through the research project BIA2017-86811-C2-1-R directed by José Turmo and BIA2017-86811-C2-2-R, directed by Jose Antonio Lozano-Galant. All these projects are funded with FEDER funds. Authors are also indebted to the Secretaria d’ Universitats i Recerca de la Generalitat de Catalunya for the funding provided through Agaur (2017 SGR 1481). It is also to be noted that funding for this research has been provided for MR. SEYEDMILAD KOMARIZADEHASL by Agencia Estatal de Inves-tigación del Ministerio de Ciencia Innovación y Universidades grant and the Fondo Social Europeo grant (PRE2018-083238).




New methodology to sustainability assessment in viaducts: a case study in Cataluña, Spain

UPCommons. Portal del coneixement obert de la UPC
  • Jurado, Julio
  • Fuente Antequera, Albert de la|||0000-0002-8016-1677
  • Lozano Galant, José Antonio
  • Turmo Coderque, José|||0000-0001-5001-2438
Viaducts, like other infrastructure works, are essential for economic and social development. The construction of viaducts has been carried out for more than 4,000 years. Advances in construction technologies have allowed the development of larger and larger works. Mother requirements demands that these engineering jobs are sustainable. Therefore, they must be evaluated economically, environmentally, and socially to ensure that the resources they use do not compromise the ability of future generations to meet their needs. The evaluation can be carried out under different methodologies. However, this work evaluates a viaduct with a new methodology based on the integration between the "Integrated Value Model for Sustainability Assessment" (MIVES) and the "Building Information Modeling" (BIM). Three evaluation scenarios are presented focused on an investor's point of view, on balanced sustainability, and finally, on an economic crisis scenario. The results indicate the robustness of the method., This work was partially funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness and FEDER fund (Grant No: BIA2017-86811-C2) and by the Secretaria d’ Universitats i Recerca de la Generalitat de Catalunya through Agaur (Grant No: 2017 SGR 1481) and by the “Secretaría de Educación Superior, Ciencia, Tecnología e Innovación” (SENESCYT) of Ecuador.




Development of an accurate low-cost device for structural vibration acquisition

UPCommons. Portal del coneixement obert de la UPC
  • Komarizadehasl, Seyedmilad|||0000-0002-9010-2611
  • Lozano Galant, Fidel|||0000-0001-9272-6172
  • Komary, Mahyad|||0000-0002-3219-2970
  • Lozano Galant, José Antonio
  • Turmo Coderque, José|||0000-0001-5001-2438
Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) applications are getting tremendous attention from engineers; However, the expensive sensors and equipment needed for extracting the structures' modal characteristics made SHM application only applicable to singular structures with a high budget for their health assessment. For applying the SHM systems to structures with lower health evaluation budget, a new accurate and low-cost device is proposed for the measurements of structural vibrations. This is composed of five similar simultaneous accelerometers located on a same spot for measuring the same signal. For validating the accuracy of this device, laboratory experiments were carried on; subsequently, the out-puts of the proposed device were compared with two piezoelectric accelerometers (PCB 393A03 and PCB 356B18). The results of the experiments show that not only is the proposed device 14 times less expensive than PCB 393A03, but it can also acquire vibration on lower frequencies and acceleration amplitudes where the expensive sensors could not provide any outputs., The authors are indebted to the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitive-ness for the funding provided through the research project BIA2017-86811-C2-1- -86811-C2-2-R, directed by Jose Antonio Lozano-Galant. All these projects are funded with FEDER funds. Authors are also indebted to the Secretaria sitats i Recerca de la Generalitat de Catalunya, Catalunya, Spain for the funding provided through Agaur (2017 SGR 1482). It is also to be noted that funding for this research has been provided for Seyedmilad Koma-rizadehasl by Spanish Agencia Estatal de Investigación grant and the Fondo Social Europeo grant (PRE2018-083238).




A comprehensive description of a Low-Cost Angular Data Monitoring System

UPCommons. Portal del coneixement obert de la UPC
  • Komarizadehasl, Seyedmilad|||0000-0002-9010-2611
  • Turmo Coderque, José|||0000-0001-5001-2438
  • Mobaraki, Behnam
  • Lozano Galant, José Antonio
Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) is basic to survey the exactness of strength forecasts of structures. Utilizing low-cost sensors on structural assessment have increased in contrast with using high-cost sensors. Although these may not be as exact and accurate as of the costly electronic gadgets, with an effective code and right use there is a probability of getting helpful data from them. The information produced from these low-cost sensors can provide useful insight for the SHM systems. In this paper problems regarding angular data acquisition together with their respective solutions are presented. Not only issues regarding coding and placing of these sensors have been presented completely, but precise solutions for the aforementioned problems as well as an efficient way of assembling and preparing the sensors have also been presented. The proposed circuit is composed of an accelerometer, a gyroscope, a magnetometer, an Arduino board and a Laptop, as an information recorder and moderator., The authors are indebted to the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness for the funding pro-vided through the research project BIA2017-86811-C2-1-R directed by José Turmo and BIA2017-86811-C2-2-R, directed by Jose Antonio Lozano-Galant. All these projects are funded with FEDER funds. Authors are also indebted to the Secretaria d’ Universitats i Recerca de la Generalitat de Catalunya for the fund-ing provided through Agaur (2017 SGR 1481). It is also to be noted that funding for this research has been provided for MR. SEYEDMILAD KOMARIZA-DEHASL by Agencia Estatal de Investigación del Ministerio de Ciencia Innovación y Universidades grant and the Fondo Social Europeo grant (PRE2018-083238).




Beneficial effect of combining similar low-cost accelerometer to improve the overall accuracy and noise density

UPCommons. Portal del coneixement obert de la UPC
  • Komarizadehasl, Seyedmilad|||0000-0002-9010-2611
  • Alahmad, Ahmad|||0000-0002-6127-1897
  • Lozano Galant, José Antonio
  • Torralba Mendiola, Víctor
  • Ramos Schneider, Gonzalo|||0000-0002-7263-8471
  • Turmo Coderque, José|||0000-0001-5001-2438
Structural Health Monitoring applications are receiving more and more attention nowadays. The epidemic problem with these evaluations is their high cost. For applying them to structures/ infrastructures with a low budget of SHM evaluations, low-cost sensors must be taken into account. However, low-cost accelerometers have higher noise density ratios which affect their accuracy and resolution. Using filters or post-processing methods alters the acquired information of the accelerometers. This article aims to enhance the accuracy and resolution of low-cost sensors by improving and controlling the spectral noise level through active noise improvement. This improvement is studied in this paper and supportive laboratory experiments have been illustrated., The authors are indebted to the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness for the funding provided through the research project BIA2017-86811-C2-1-R directed by José Turmo and BIA2017-86811-C2-2-R. All these projects are funded with FEDER funds. Authors are also indebted to the Secretaria d' Universitats i Recerca de la Generalitat de Catalunya, Catalunya, Spain for the funding provided through Agaur (2017 SGR 1482). It is also to be noted that funding for this research has been provided for Seyedmilad Komarizadehasl by Spanish Agencia Estatal de Investigación del Ministerio de Ciencia Innovación y Universidades grant and the Fondo Social Europeo grant (PRE2018-083238).




Final overview of COST Action TU1406: quality control of existing bridges

UPCommons. Portal del coneixement obert de la UPC
  • Casas Rius, Joan Ramon|||0000-0003-4473-4308
Across Europe, the need to manage roadway bridges efficiently led to the development of multiple management systems. Despite presenting similar architectural frameworks, the condition assessment procedure is one of the difference that distinguishes them. This dissimilarity constitutes a divergent mechanism that has direct interference in the decision making process leading to considerable variations in roadway bridges quality. COST Action TU1406 aims to institute a standardized roadway bridges condition assessment procedure. Such purpose requires the establishment of recommendations for the quantification of performance indicators, the definition of performance goals and a guideline for the standardization of quality control plans for bridges. By developing new approaches to quantify and assess bridge performance, as well as quality specifications to assure expected performance levels, bridge management strategies will be significantly improved, enhancing asset management of ageing structures in Europe. The work developed and achieved by COST Action TU1406 will be presented.




A novel data acquisition system for obtaining thermal parameters of building envelopes

UPCommons. Portal del coneixement obert de la UPC
  • Mobaraki, Behnam
  • Komarizadehasl, Seyedmilad|||0000-0002-9010-2611
  • Castilla Pascual, Francisco Javier
  • Lozano Galant, José Antonio
  • Porras Soriano, Rocío
Owing to the high energy consumption in the building sector, appraising the thermal performance of building envelopes is an increasing concern. Recently, a few in situ methodologies to diagnose the thermal parameters of buildings have been considered. However, because of their limitations such as low accuracy, limited number of measurements, and the high cost of monitoring devices, researchers are seeking a new alternative. In this study, a novel hyper-efficient Arduino transmittance-meter was introduced to overcome these limitations and determine the thermal parameters of building envelopes. Unlike conventional methodologies, the proposed transmittance-meter is based on synchronized measurements of different parameters necessary to estimate the transmittance parameter. To verify the applicability of the transmittance-meter, an experimental study was conducted wherein a temperature-controlled box model was thermally monitored, and the outputs of the transmittance-meter employed were compared with those captured by a commercial device. The results revealed a high level of reduction in cost and a low range of difference compared with the latter, thereby validating the applicability of the proposed thermal monitoring system., This research was funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness, grant numbers BIA2013-47290-R, BIA2017-86811-C2-1-R, and BIA2017-86811-C2-2-R, and Ministerio de Ciencia Innovación y Universidades: PRE2018-085172., Peer Reviewed




Towards the integration and automation of the design process for domestic drinking-water and sewerage systems with BIM

UPCommons. Portal del coneixement obert de la UPC
  • Atencio, Edison
  • Araya, Pablo
  • Oyarce, Francisco
  • Herrera, Rodrigo F.
  • Muñoz La Rivera, Felipe
  • Lozano Galant, Fidel|||0000-0001-9272-6172
The use of building information modelling (BIM) in construction projects is expanding, and its usability throughout building lifecycles, from planning and construction to operation and maintenance, is gaining increasing proof. In the design of domestic drinking-water and sewerage systems (DDWSSs), BIM focuses on coordinating disciplines and their design. Despite studies promoting BIM environments for DDWSSs that take into account the regulatory frameworks of corresponding countries, these efforts do not include the use of parametric tools that enhance the efficiency of the design process. Therefore, engineers still use conventional 2D design, which requires many rounds of iteration, and manual work is also generally still used. In this research, we developed and validated an intuitive methodology for solving a specific DDWSS problem, using a design science research method (DSRM) as an applied science approach. This was addressed by developing an artefact and validating it through two case studies. The obtained solution combines BIM models and parametric tools to automate the manual activities of the traditional design method. This article aims to bring abstract BIM concepts into practice and encourage researchers and engineers to adopt BIM for DDWSSs., This research was funded by Proyecto VRIEA-PUCV, grant number 039.427/2021, and the Grants for the Promotion of Research in the Department of Civil and Building Engineering, UCLM. This research was also funded by Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness provided through the research project BIA2013-47290-R, BIA2017-86811-C2-1-R and BIA2017-86811-C2-2-R. All these projects were funded with FEDER funds., Peer Reviewed




Direct simulation of the tensioning process of cable-stayed bridge cantilever construction

UPCommons. Portal del coneixement obert de la UPC
  • Farré Checa, Josep
  • Komarizadehasl, Seyedmilad|||0000-0002-9010-2611
  • Ma, Haiying
  • Lozano Galant, José Antonio
  • Turmo Coderque, José|||0000-0001-5001-2438
The construction analysis of cable-stayed bridges plays a crucial role in the security of such structures because stresses and deflections attained during construction might exceed those in service. Although some commercial software are capable of simulating this, their main drawback is that they typically apply the stage superposition principle, owing to which the intermediate stages cannot be analyzed independently. Moreover, under this approach, the corrections of the tensioning process due to deviations in the cable stresses measured on site are more difficult. In this study, we conducted a direct simulation of the construction process of cable-stayed bridges built using the cantilever erection method by analyzing independent finite element models. To assure the achievement of a certain target state after construction (objective service stage, (OSS)), the prestressing forces in these models were modeled as imposed strains based on the unstressed length concept. Thus, the construction process can be simulated faster when time dependent phenomena are neglected. Moreover, this will lead to the direct simulation of the construction stages and OSS. To illustrate the application of the proposed method, a cable-stayed bridge was analyzed., The authors are indebted to the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness for the funding provided through the research project BIA2017-86811-C2-1-R founded with FEDER funds and directed by Professor José Turmo and through the research project BIA2017-86811-C2-2-R. Authors are also indebted to the Secretaria d'Universitats i Recerca de la Generalitat de Catalunya for the funding provided through AGAUR (2020 DI 112) and to the Shanghai Qizhi Institute (Grant number: SYXF0120020109) for providing financial support for this study., Peer Reviewed




Role of sensors in error propagation with the dynamic constrained observability method

UPCommons. Portal del coneixement obert de la UPC
  • Peng, Tian
  • Nogal Macho, María
  • Casas Rius, Joan Ramon|||0000-0003-4473-4308
  • Turmo Coderque, José|||0000-0001-5001-2438
The inverse problem of structural system identification is prone to ill-conditioning issues; thus, uniqueness and stability cannot be guaranteed. This issue tends to amplify the error propagation of both the epistemic and aleatory uncertainties, where aleatory uncertainty is related to the accuracy and the quality of sensors. The analysis of uncertainty quantification (UQ) is necessary to assess the effect of uncertainties on the estimated parameters. A literature review is conducted in this paper to check the state of existing approaches for efficient UQ in the parameter identification field. It is identified that the proposed dynamic constrained observability method (COM) can make up for some of the shortcomings of existing methods. After that, the COM is used to analyze a real bridge. The result is compared with the existing method, demonstrating its applicability and correct performance by a reinforced concrete beam. In addition, during the bridge system identification by COM, it is found that the best measurement set in terms of the range will depend on whether the epistemic uncertainty involved or not. It is concluded that, because the epistemic uncertainty will be removed as the knowledge of the structure increases, the optimum sensor placement should be achieved considering not only the accuracy of sensors, but also the unknown structural part., This research work was conducted with financial support from the Chinese Scholarship Council and the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness and FEDER funds (BIA2017-86811-C2-1-R). Authors are also indebted to the Secretaria d’ Universitats i Recerca de la Generalitat de Catalunya for the funding provided through Agaur (2017 SGR 1481)., Peer Reviewed




Constrained observability techniques for structural system identification using modal analysis

UPCommons. Portal del coneixement obert de la UPC
  • Peng, Tian
  • Nogal, María
  • Casas Rius, Joan Ramon|||0000-0003-4473-4308
  • Lozano Galant, José Antonio
  • Turmo Coderque, José|||0000-0001-5001-2438
The characteristics of civil structures inevitably suffer a certain level of damage during its lifetime and cheap, non-destructive and reliable methods to assess their correct performance are of high importance. Structural System Identification (SSI) using measured response is the way to fine why performance is not correct and identify where the problems can be found. Different methods of SSI exist, both using static and vibration experimental data. However, using these methods is not always possible to decide if available measurements are sufficient to uniquely obtain the unknown. A (SSI) method that uses constrained observability method (COM) has already been developed based on the information provided by the monitoring of static non-destructive tests - using deflections and rotations under a known loading case. The method assures that all observable variables can be obtained with the available measured data. In the present paper, the problem of determining the actual characteristics of the members of a structure such as axial stiffness, flexural stiffness and mass using vibration data is analyzed. Subsets of natural frequencies and/or modal shapes are used. To give a better understanding of the proposed method and to demonstrate its potential applicability, several examples of growing complexity are analyzed, and the results show how constrained observability techniques might be efficiently used for the dynamic identification of structural systems using dynamic data. These lead to significant conclusions regarding the functioning of an SSI method based on dynamic behavior., The authors are indebted to the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness for the funding provided through the research projects BIA2013-47290-R and BIA2017-86811-C2-1-R founded with FEDER funds and directed by Professor Jose Turmo and through the research project BIA2017-86811-C2-2-R. It is also to be noted that the part of this work was done included an exchange of faculty financed by the Chinese government to Mrs.Peng thorough the program (No. 201808390083). The financial support from the the Chinese Scholarship Council and the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (BES-2018-B00230) are greatly appreciated., Peer Reviewed




Structural system identification including shear deformation of composite bridges from vertical deflections

UPCommons. Portal del coneixement obert de la UPC
  • Emadi, Seyyedbehrad
  • Lozano Galant, José Antonio
  • Xia, Ye
  • Ramos Schneider, Gonzalo|||0000-0002-7263-8471
  • Turmo Coderque, José|||0000-0001-5001-2438
Shear deformation effects are neglected in most structural system identification methods. This assumption might lead to important errors in some structures like built up steel or composite deep beams. Recently, the observability techniques were presented as one of the first methods for the inverse analysis of structures including the shear effects. In this way, the mechanical properties of the structures could be obtained from the nodal movements measured on static tests. One of the main controversial features of this procedure is the fact that the measurement set must include rotations. This characteristic might be especially problematic in those structures where rotations cannot be measured. To solve this problem and to increase its applicability, this paper proposes an update of the observability method to enable the structural identification including shear effects by measuring only vertical deflections. This modification is based on the introduction of a numerical optimization method. With this aim, the inverse analysis of several examples of growing complexity are presented to illustrate the validity and potential of the updated method., Peer Reviewed




Detailed evaluation of low-cost ranging sensors for structural health monitoring applications

UPCommons. Portal del coneixement obert de la UPC
  • Komarizadehasl, Seyedmilad|||0000-0002-9010-2611
  • Mobaraki, Behnam
  • Lozano Galant, José Antonio
  • Turmo Coderque, José|||0000-0001-5001-2438
To evaluate the safety of structures, choosing a proper maintains protocol to assess the performance/ workability of the structures in the future, Structural health monitoring (SHM) applications are required. The SHM application usually applies to unique structures with high budgets. For using them on structures with low-budgets low-cost sensors required. Low-cost sensors are getting considerable attention compared with the expensive traditional alternatives. This paper introduces 3 types of low-cost displacement measuring sensors. These sensors were programmed and controlled by an Arduino. Acquiring data from them was done by a connected computer to the Arduino. By engaging these sensors in a few experiments and evaluating their responses, their functionality and accuracy in different situations are investigated. Moreover, the pros and cons of each one of them for each test are illustrated. By taking into account their price, their advantages on exceptional circumstances, and their reliability, different sensors for different situations have been proposed., The authors are indebted to the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness for the funding provided through the research project BIA2017- 86811-C2-1-R directed by José Turmo and BIA2017-86811-C2-2-R, directed by Jose Antonio Lozano-Galant. All these projects are funded with FEDER funds. Authors are also indebted to the Secretaria d’ Universitats i Recerca de la Generalitat de Catalunya for the funding provided through Agaur (2017 SGR 1482). It is also to be noted that funding for this research has been provided for MR. Seyedmilad Komarizadehasl by Agencia Estatal de Investigación del Ministerio de Ciencia Innovación y Universidades grant and the Fondo Social Europeo grant (PRE2018-083238).




A comprehensive description of a low-cost wireless dynamic real-time data acquisition and monitoring system

UPCommons. Portal del coneixement obert de la UPC
  • Komarizadehasl, Seyedmilad|||0000-0002-9010-2611
  • Mobaraki, Behnam
  • Lozano Galant, José Antonio
  • Turmo Coderque, José|||0000-0001-5001-2438
Nowadays,low-cost sensors and acquisition devices have been emerging as an obvioussolution to many innovative applications such as Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) systems. In this paper,issues regarding dynamic data acquisition,as well as their respective solutions,are presented. Moreover, a comprehensive description through-out an inexpensive sensor network system using open-source hardware for a real-time acceleration data acquisition has beenpresented. The platform consists of an accelerometer, an Arduino board,and a computeras a data recorder and presenter. Data is recorded through an efficient microcontroller code that can provide a considerable reading frequency (up to 300Hz). Using Python, instant acceleration recording for all the threeaxes has been done. It is shown how the performance of the proposed system is efficientfor the field of SHM systems., The authors are indebted to the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness for the funding provided through the research project BIA2017-86811-C2-1-R directed by José Turmo and BIA2017-86811-C2-2-R, directed by Jose Antonio Lozano-Galant. All these projects are funded with FEDER funds. Authors are also indebted to the Secretaria d’ Universitats i Recerca de la Generalitat de Catalunya for the funding provided through Agaur (2017 SGR 1481). It is also to be noted that funding for this research has been provided for MR. SEYEDMILAD KOMARIZADEHASL by Agencia Estatal de Investigación del Ministerio de Ciencia Innovación y Universidades grant and the Fondo Social Europeo grant (PRE2018-083238).




Comparison of different low-cost sensors for structural health monitoring

UPCommons. Portal del coneixement obert de la UPC
  • Komarizadehasl, Seyedmilad|||0000-0002-9010-2611
  • Turmo Coderque, José|||0000-0001-5001-2438
  • Mobaraki, Behnam
  • Lozano Galant, José Antonio
Recently, the need for Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) and inspection is growing as a result of the increasing age of the structural stock worldwide. SHM includes bringing into use a sensor or an array of sensors into an engineered structure. This paper evaluates the practical aspects to consider when choosing different low-cost sensors for using in a SHM application. For this reason, a microcontroller (Arduino) with attached sensors (Ultrasonic, Laser, Gyroscope, Accelerometer, Temperature-humidity, SD-module) has been used throughout different controlled ambient situations and experiments. During the sensor installation and data acquisition, some issues related to the Arduino codes and position of the sensors arise. In this article solutions for tackling faced problems have been presented for achieving an efficient way of using these electronic devices. Their data have been collected to assess and compare their tolerances as well as advantages and disadvantages of their use, cost among them. The information from this article could be used either to choose the appropriate sensors either for static or for dynamic Structural System Identification (SSI)., The authors are indebted to the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness for the funding pro-vided through the research project BIA2017-86811-C2-1-R directed by José Turmo and BIA2017-86811-C2-2-R, directed by Jose Antonio Lozano-Galant. All these projects are funded with FEDER funds. Authors are also indebted to the Secretaria d’ Universitats i Recerca de la Generalitat de Catalunya for the funding provided through Agaur (2017 SGR 1481). It is also to be noted that funding for this re-search has been provided for MR. SEYEDMILAD KOMARIZADEHASL by Agencia Estatal de Inves-tigación del Ministerio de Ciencia Innovación y Universidades grant and the Fondo Social Europeo grant (PRE2018-083238).




Full review of low-cost electronics implemented in structural health monitoring applications for bridges

UPCommons. Portal del coneixement obert de la UPC
  • Komary, Mahyad|||0000-0002-3219-2970
  • Komarizadehasl, Seyedmilad|||0000-0002-9010-2611
  • Ramos Schneider, Gonzalo|||0000-0002-7263-8471
  • Tošić, Nikola|||0000-0003-0242-8804
  • Turmo Coderque, José|||0000-0001-5001-2438
  • Torralba Mendiola, Víctor
Recently Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) is attracting so much attention due to the global structural stock’s growing era. SHM is a system including sensors and management algorithms that provide non-destructive in-situ information about a structure’s performance condition or health. Therefore, lately, the demand for adopting low-cost sensors for static or dynamic Structural System Identi¿cation (SSI) has increased. This paper introduces and evaluates different low-cost sensors mainly used in the bridges SHM applications. Firstly, the Ardu-ino Uno, which is the programmable logic controller, and diverse sensors such as Ultrasonic, Laser, Gyroscope, Accelerometer, Temperature-humidity were introduced. Secondly, different tests were applied in controlled ambi-ent situations to identify dif¿culties during sensor installation and data acquisition. This study presents solutions for encountered problems in order to use these low-cost electronic devices ef¿ciently for SHM purposes., The authors are indebted to the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness for the funding provided through the research project BIA2017-86811-C2-1-R directed by José Turmo.This project was funded with FEDER funds. Authors are also indebted to the Secretaria d’ Universitats i Recerca de la Generalitat de Catalunya for the funding provided through Agaur (2017 SGR 1481). It is also to be noted that funding for this research has been pro-vided for MR. Seyedmilad Komarizadehasl by Agencia Estatal de Investigación del Ministerio de Ciencia Innovación y Universidades grant and the Fondo Social Europeo grant (PRE2018-083238).




Development of a low-cost system for the accurate measurement of structural vibrations

UPCommons. Portal del coneixement obert de la UPC
  • Komarizadehasl, Seyedmilad|||0000-0002-9010-2611
  • Mobaraki, Behnam
  • Ma, Haiying
  • Lozano Galant, José Antonio
  • Turmo Coderque, José|||0000-0001-5001-2438
Nowadays, engineers are widely using accelerometers to record the vibration of structures for structural verification purposes. The main obstacle for using these data acquisition systems is their high cost, which limits its use to unique structures with a relatively high structural health monitoring budget. In this paper, a Cost Hyper-Efficient Arduino Product (CHEAP) has been developed to accurately measure structural accelerations. CHEAP is a system that is composed of five low-cost accelerometers that are connected to an Arduino microcontroller as their data acquisition system. Test results show that CHEAP not only has a significantly lower price (14 times cheaper in the worst-case scenario) compared with other systems used for comparison but also shows better accuracy on low frequencies for low acceleration amplitudes. Moreover, the final output results of Fast Fourier Transformation (FFT) assessments showed a better observable resolution for CHEAP than the studied control systems., This research was funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness, grant number BIA2017-86811-C2-1-R; the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness, grant number BIA2017-86811-C2-2-R; the Secretaria d’ Universitats i Recerca de la Generalitat de Catalunya, Catalunya, Spain, grant number 2017 SGR 1482; Spanish Agencia Estatal de Investigación del Ministerio de Ciencia Innovación y Universidades grant and the Fondo Social Europeo grant, grant number PRE2018-083238; Shanghai Qizhi Institute, grant number SYXF0120020109., Peer Reviewed




Design and construction of post-tensioned concrete box-girder viaducts for high-speed rail

UPCommons. Portal del coneixement obert de la UPC
  • Torralba Mendiola, Víctor
  • Polo Orodea, Tomás
  • Ramos Schneider, Gonzalo|||0000-0002-7263-8471
  • Aparicio Bengoechea, Ángel Carlos|||0000-0002-3029-9491
This paper explains the design criteria used for nine box-girder continuous high-speed rail viaducts constructed in Spain. It describes the longitudinal layout and an innovative construction process using movable scaffolding. A comparison between different post-tensioning and reinforcing steel ratios is provided. Recommendations for fatigue design and concrete stress criteria in the serviceability limit state are given. In addition, the paper provides the quantities of concrete, post-tensioning and reinforcing steel used in the construction of the viaducts., Peer Reviewed




Low-cost sensors accuracy study and enhancement strategy

UPCommons. Portal del coneixement obert de la UPC
  • Komarizadehasl, Seyedmilad|||0000-0002-9010-2611
  • Mobaraki, Behnam
  • Ma, Haiying
  • Lozano Galant, José Antonio
  • Turmo Coderque, José|||0000-0001-5001-2438
Today, low-cost sensors in various civil engineering sectors are gaining the attention of researchers due to their reduced production cost and their applicability to multiple nodes. Low-cost sensors also have the advantage of easily connecting to low-cost microcontrollers such as Arduino. A low-cost, reliable acquisition system based on Arduino technology can further reduce the price of data acquisition and monitoring, which can make long-term monitoring possible. This paper introduces a wireless Internet-based low-cost data acquisition system consisting of Raspberry Pi and several Arduinos as signal conditioners. This study investigates the beneficial impact of similar sensor combinations, aiming to improve the overall accuracy of several sensors with an unknown accuracy range. The paper then describes an experiment that gives valuable information about the standard deviation, distribution functions, and error level of various individual low-cost sensors under different environmental circumstances. Unfortunately, these data are usually missing and sometimes assumed in numerical studies targeting the development of structural system identification methods. A measuring device consisting of a total of 75 contactless ranging sensors connected to two microcontrollers (Arduinos) was designed to study the similar sensor combination theory and present the standard deviation and distribution functions. The 75 sensors include: 25 units of HC-SR04 (analog), 25 units of VL53L0X, and 25 units of VL53L1X (digital)., The authors are indebted to the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness for the funding provided through the research project BIA2017-86811-C2-1-R, directed by José Turmo, and BIA2017-86811-C2-2-R, directed by Jose Antonio Lozano-Galant. All these projects are funded with FEDER funds. Authors are also indebted to the Secretaria d’ Universitats i Recerca de la Generalitat de Catalunya, Catalunya, Spain for the funding provided through Agaur (2017 SGR 1482). It is also to be noted that funding for this research has been provided for Seyedmilad Komarizadehasl by the Spanish Agencia Estatal de Investigación del Ministerio de Ciencia Innovación y Universidades grant and the Fondo Social Europeo grant (PRE2018-083238)., Peer Reviewed




Simplified calculation of shear rotations for first-order shear deformation theory in deep bridge beams

UPCommons. Portal del coneixement obert de la UPC
  • Emadi, Seyyedbehrad
  • Ma, Haiying
  • Lozano Galant, José Antonio
  • Turmo Coderque, José|||0000-0001-5001-2438
Nodal rotations are produced by bending and shear effects and bending rotations can be easily calculated using Euler–Bernoulli’s stiffness matrix method. Nevertheless, shear rotations are traditionally neglected, as their effects are practically negligible in most structures. This assumption might lead to significant errors in the simulation of the rotations in some structures, as well as the wrong identification of the mechanical properties in inverse analysis. Despite its important role, no other works studying the calculation of shear rotations in deep beams were found in the literature. To fill this gap, after illustrating the errors of commercial software regarding calculating the rotations in deep beams, this study proposed a simple and intuitive method to calculate shear rotations in both isostatic and statically redundant beams. The new method calculates the shear rotation for all segments separately and introduces the result to the total rotation of the structure. This method can be applied to find the shear rotation in a redundant structure as well. A parametric study was carried out to calculate slenderness ratios to determine in what structural systems the shear rotations can be neglected. In addition, the errors in the inverse analysis of deep beams were parametrically studied to determine the role of shear rotation in different structural systems. Finally, to validate the application of the method in actual structures, a construction stage of a composite bridge was analyzed., The authors are indebted to the projects PID2021-126405OB-C31 and PID2021-126405OB-C32 funded by FEDER funds—A Way to Make Europe and Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness MICIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033/, BIA2017-86811-C2-1-R and BIA2017-86811-C2-2-R funded by FEDER funds., Peer Reviewed




Using RPA for performance monitoring of dynamic SHM applications

UPCommons. Portal del coneixement obert de la UPC
  • Atencio, Edison
  • Komarizadehasl, Seyedmilad|||0000-0002-9010-2611
  • Lozano Galant, José Antonio
  • Aguilera, Edison
Robotic Process Automation (RPA) is a source of growing applications in a number of industries both as an individual technology and as a complement to other technologies (such as Internet of Things (IoT)). RPA allows the automation of human activities on a computer, especially when these activities are repetitive and high in volume. RPA saves man-hours and increases the productive capacity of the processes. The application of RPA in civil engineering is still in its early stages, and there has been little work on the subject in the literature. This paper presents RPA technology, for the first time in the literature, as a long-term management, control, and auto fault correction process for a low-cost accelerometer that can be used in SHM applications. However, this process requires a significant number of man-hours to stay operational, given the architecture of its applications. With the application of an RPA implementation workflow formulated based on the Design Science Research Method (DSRM), the management and control of the data acquisition process of a low-cost accelerometer located on a structural column are automated and put into operation in this study. RPA also made it possible to automatically detect and notify users of errors in the process, restart the process, and bring the process back online every time errors occurred. In this way, an automated process was obtained that operated continually and freed up human labour., The Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness: BIA2017-86811-C2-1-R; The Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness: BIA2017-86811-C2-2-R; The Secretaria d’ Universitats i Recerca de la Generalitat de Catalunya, Catalunya, Spain: 2017 SGR 1482; Spanish Agencia Estatal de Investigación del Ministerio de Ciencia Innovación y Universidades grant and the Fondo Social Europeo grant: PRE2018-083238., Peer Reviewed




Structural health monitoring of 2D plane structures

UPCommons. Portal del coneixement obert de la UPC
  • Mobaraki, Behnam
  • Ma, Haiying
  • Lozano Galant, José Antonio
  • Turmo Coderque, José|||0000-0001-5001-2438
This paper presents the application of the observability technique for the structural system identification of 2D models. Unlike previous applications of this method, unknown variables appear both in the numerator and the denominator of the stiffness matrix system, making the problem non-linear and impossible to solve. To fill this gap, new changes in variables are proposed to linearize the system of equations. In addition, to illustrate the application of the proposed procedure into the observability method, a detailed mathematical analysis is presented. Finally, to validate the applicability of the method, the mechanical properties of a state-of-the-art plate are numerically determined., The authors are indebted to the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness for the funding provided through the research projects BIA2013‐47290‐R, BIA2017‐86811‐C2‐1‐R, and BIA2017‐86811‐C2‐2‐R founded with FEDER funds. Funding for this research was provided to Behnam Mobaraki by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness through its program for his PhD. Part of this work was done through grant number 2018‐COB‐9092 from the Universidad de Castilla La Mancha (UCLM). The authors are also indebted to the Secretaria d’ Universitats i Recerca de la Generalitat de Catalunya for the funding provided through Agaur (2017 SGR 1481)., Peer Reviewed




Finite fault source model for ground motion near fault zone

UPCommons. Portal del coneixement obert de la UPC
  • Qiu, Yuan
  • Ma, Haiying
  • Xia, Ye
  • Lai, Minghui
  • Turmo Coderque, José|||0000-0001-5001-2438
  • Lozano Galant, José Antonio
Ground motion is categorized into near fault zone and across fault zone where impulsive component is included. The impulsive component usually causes larger damage than that by far-fault ground motion. To build a Benchmark model platform for cable-stayed bridges across-fault region for comparative analysis, the paper proposes a way combining the finite fault source model. In the paper, the finite fault source model was conducted based on the site Qiongshan earthquake. After the geological structural parameters were determined, forward modeling of near site earthquake was carried out, and the observation points were obtained using numerical simulation. Then, the analysis results were compared with the pulse characteristic parameters of similar grade of recording ground motion. Additionally, the ground motion near-fault region was analyzed to validate the finite fault source model., The authors are indebted to research funding provided by the National Key R&D Program of China (2017YFC1500603), and to the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness and FEDER funds for the funding provided through the research project BIA2017-86811-C2-1-R.




Calibración de herramientas heurística para la optimización del proceso de tesado de puentes atirantados, Calibration of heurist tool parameters for the optimization of tensioning process of cablestayed bridges

UPCommons. Portal del coneixement obert de la UPC
  • Gisbert Doménech, Carlos Miguel
  • Lozano Galant, José Antonio
  • Payá Zaforteza, Ignacio Javier
  • Turmo Coderque, José|||0000-0001-5001-2438
El diseño y la materialización del proceso constructivo es uno de los aspectos más complicados en proyecto de los puentes atirantados. En la mayoría de las estructuras este proceso se define en base únicamente a la experiencia del proyectista sin optimizar el comportamiento estructural de ningún elemento del puente. En este artículo se propone la optimización del proceso de tesado de puentes atirantados mediante la utilización de algoritmos heurísticos. Uno de los principales inconvenientes de este tipo de herramientas es el hecho de que la solución depende, en mayor o menor medida, de los parámetros del algoritmo. Para determinar estos parámetros, tradicionalmente se realizan numerosas combinaciones aleatorias de estos parámetros. Sin embargo, y pese a su elevado coste computacional, este procedimiento no permite garantizar que se haya encontrado la combinación óptima de estos parámetros. Para solucionar este problema, el presente artículo propone la aplicación de las técnicas de diseño de experimentos para calibrar los parámetros de las herramientas de optimización heurística con un reducido coste computacional. La metodología propuesta se valida mediante la optimización del proceso de tesado de un puente atirantado., Los autores desean agradecer el apoyo proporcionado por el Ministerio de Economía y competitividad, por los proyectos de investigación BIA2013-47290-R, BIA2017-86811-C2-1-R y BIA2017-86811-C2-2-R financiados con fondos FEDER.




Analytical observability method for the structural system identification of wide-flange box girder bridges with the effect of shear lag

UPCommons. Portal del coneixement obert de la UPC
  • Sun, Yuan
  • Xu, Yaren
  • Lozano Galant, José Antonio
  • Wang, Xiaoming
  • Turmo Coderque, José|||0000-0001-5001-2438
In the field of bridge structural system identification (SSI), Bernoulli beam element models are often used to solve inverse problems. More rarely, Timoshenko beam element models can be calibrated. However, these models account for only the general shear effects, whereas other shear effects, such as shear lag, are not accounted for. However, as wide-flange box girder bridges become prevalent due to design demands, neglecting shear lag may introduce significant errors in predicting the mechanical parameters of the system and, hence, reduce the accuracy. In this paper, for the first time, the shear lag's effect on the vertical deflections is taken into account in an inverse problem. A parametric SSI, the observability method (OM), is updated to address the identification of thin-walled box girder bridges with wide flanges, including the shear lag effects. The structural analytical equations are used to connect the spatial shear effects with the beam-unidimensional-element model to be applied in the inverse analysis, which is referred to as the analytical observability method (AOM-SSI). This updated version of the OM is established and validated to identify the mechanical parameters of a structural test. The identified mechanical parameters show much better agreement with the expected results than those obtained with previous methods., This work was supported by BIA2017-86811-C2-1-R Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness, Spain. It was also supported by the Innovation Group Project, Natural Science Foundation of Hubei, China (Grant No. 2020CFA047) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No.52178104)., Peer Reviewed




Determination of environmental parameters based on Arduino based low-cost sensors

UPCommons. Portal del coneixement obert de la UPC
  • Mobaraki, Behnam
  • Komarizadehasl, Seyedmilad|||0000-0002-9010-2611
  • Castilla Pascual, Francisco Javier
  • Lozano Galant, José Antonio
Taking into account that the age of structures is closely connected to their energy consumption, the monitoring of structures is a crucial task for engineers. This article deals with application of Arduino based low-cost sensors for environmental monitoring ofbuildings. To do so, open source platform Arduino as well as four environmental sensors, DHT22, have been used for measuring variation of temperature and humidity. In order to check accuracy of the utilized data acquisition system, statistical approach was used to check the repeatability and discrepancy of the recorded data. Statistical calculations indicate that the sensor is more accurate in terms of measuring temperature rather than humidity one since discrepancy of the temperature parameter is less than the humidity one. Toe maximum range of standard deviation derived for temperature and humidity parameters are less than 0.13 and 1.33 respectively., Toe authors are indebted to the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness for the funding provided through the research projects BIA2013-47290-R, BIA2017-86811-C2-1-R, and BIA2017-86811-C2-2-R founded with FEDER funds It is also to be noted that funding for this research has been provided to Mr. BEHNAM MOBARAKI by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness through its program for his Ph.D. It is also to be noted that part of this work was done through grant number 2018-COB-9092 from Universidad de Castilla La Mancha (UCLM).




Robust static structural system identification using rotations

UPCommons. Portal del coneixement obert de la UPC
  • Lei, Jun
  • Lozano Galant, José Antonio
  • Xu, Dong
  • Zhang, Feng
  • Turmo Coderque, José|||0000-0001-5001-2438
Deflections are commonly measured in the static structural system identification of structures. Comparatively less attention has been paid to the possibility of measuring rotations for structural system identification purposes, despite the many advantages of using inclinometers, such as a high resolution and being reference free. Although some work using rotations can be found in the literature, this paper, for the very first time, proposes a statistical analysis that justifies the theoretical advantage of measuring rotations. The analytical expressions for the target parameters are obtained via static structural system identification using the constrained observability method first. Combined with the inverse distribution theory, the probability density function of the estimations of the target parameters can be obtained. Comparative studies on a simply supported bridge and a frame structure demonstrate the advantage of measuring rotations regarding the unbiasedness and the extent of variation in the estimations. To achieve robust parameter estimations, four strategies to use redundant rotations are proposed and compared. Numerical verifications on a bridge structure and a high-rise building have shown promising results., This work was partially funded by the Scientific Research Fund of the Institute of Engineering Mechanics, China Earthquake Administration (grant no. 2019 EEEVL0401), National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant nos. 51878484), Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness and the FEDER fund through the projects BIA2013-47290-R and BIA2017-86811-C2-1-R directed by José Turmo and BIA2017-86811-C2-2-R, and the Natural Science Foundation of Shenzhen (grant no. JCYJ20190806143618723). The authors are also indebted to the Secretaria d’Universitats i Recerca de la Generalitat de Catalunya for the funding provided through Agaur (2017 SGR 1481). Part of this work was carried out through a collaborative agreement between Tongji University (China) and the Technical University of Catalonia, UPC. This included an exchange of faculty financed by the Chinese government. The financial support from the Chinese High-End Foreign Experts program (GDW20143100115) is greatly appreciated. Funding for this research has been provided to Jun Lei by the Chinese Scholarship Council through its program No. 201506260116 and by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness through its program BES-2014-07022 for his PhD stays., Peer Reviewed




Industrialized construction of medium span concrete bridges using movable false work

UPCommons. Portal del coneixement obert de la UPC
  • Turmo Coderque, José|||0000-0001-5001-2438
Modern geometrical requirements for high capacity ground infrastructure, as highways or high-speed train lines, imply increasing numbers of long tunnels and viaducts in mountainous countries. Moreover, for the sake of the environment, only some selected construction methods are eligible for sensitive areas. Long viaducts are usually solved by means of medium span concrete viaducts. For the sake of quality and health and safety, industrialized construction methods, as launching girders or precast construction, is usually preferred. The paper will describe the pros and cons of some construction methods using movable trusses to hold in place either the formwork or precast segments, emphasizing the possibilities of reducing the critical path. New construction sequences, non-standardized structural details, static and dynamic tests, reinforcing criteria, structural response, finite element model analysis and recent already built examples will be described to illustrate the possibilities of the methods., Peer Reviewed