This paper presents an approach to use strain data from a multi-girder, composite steel bridge for long-term Structural Health Monitoring (SHM). The bridge being studied is part of a research project ...at the University of Connecticut in which long-term SHM systems are being installed on a series of bridges throughout the State of Connecticut. Strain data is collected from normal truck traffic to determine live load stresses, load distribution factors, and the location of the neutral axis in each girder. Known weight trucks were used along with a finite element analysis for verification of the behavior. The long-term monitoring approach is based on determining the live load distribution factors, peak strains, and the neutral axis locations. The goal is to use existing, readily applied technology for SHM for long-term use on bridges that have raised concerns, due to corrosion noted in routine visual inspections, overloading, or fatigue sensitive details. The SHM system proposed can be used on a continuous basis to determine if there are significant changes in the structural behavior that would be indicative of major damage to either the girders or the concrete deck.
SUMMARY
Einstein Telescope (ET) is a proposed underground infrastructure in Europe to host future generations of gravitational-wave (GW) detectors. One of its design goals is to extend the ...observation band of terrestrial GW detectors from currently about 20 Hz down to 3 Hz. The coupling of a detector to its environment becomes stronger at lower frequencies, which makes it important to carefully analyse environmental disturbances at ET candidate sites. Seismic disturbances pose the greatest challenge since there are several important mechanisms for seismic vibrations to produce noise in ET, for example, through gravitational coupling, stray light, or through harmful constraints on the design of ET’s control system. In this paper, we present an analysis of the time-variant properties of the seismic field at the Sardinia candidate site of ET connected to anthropogenic as well as natural phenomena. We find that temporal variations of source distributions and of the noise spectra generally follow predictable trends in the form of diurnal, weekly, or seasonal cycles. Specific seismic sources were identified such as road bridges, which produce observable disturbances underground. This information can be used to adapt a detector’s seismic isolation and control system.
Hadron detection with a dual-readout fiber calorimeter Lee, S.; Cardini, A.; Cascella, M. ...
Nuclear instruments & methods in physics research. Section A, Accelerators, spectrometers, detectors and associated equipment,
09/2017, Letnik:
866, Številka:
C
Journal Article
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In this paper, we describe measurements of the response functions of a fiber-based dual-readout calorimeter for pions, protons and multiparticle “jets” with energies in the range from 20 to 180 GeV. ...The calorimeter uses lead as absorber material and has a total mass of 1350 kg. It is complemented by leakage counters made of scintillating plastic, with a total mass of 500 kg. The effects of these leakage counters on the calorimeter performance are studied as well. In a separate section, we investigate and compare different methods to measure the energy resolution of a calorimeter. Using only the signals provided by the calorimeter, we demonstrate that our dual-readout calorimeter, calibrated with electrons, is able to reconstruct the energy of proton and pion beam particles to within a few percent at all energies. The fractional widths of the signal distributions for these particles (σ∕E) scale with the beam energy as 30%∕E, without any additional contributing terms.
In this work we report the ongoing characterization of the Sos Enattos former mine (Sardinia, Italy), one of the two candidate sites for the Einstein Telescope (ET), the European third-generation ...underground interferometric detector of Gravitational Waves. The Sos Enattos site lies on a crystalline basement, made of rocks with good geomechanical properties, characterized by negligible groundwater. In addition, the site has a very low seismic background noise due to the absence of active tectonics involving Sardinia. Finally, the area has a low population density, resulting in a reduced anthropic noise even at the ground level. This location was already studied in 2012-2014 as a promising site for an underground detector. More recently, in March 2019, we deployed a new network of surface and underground seismometers at the site, that is currently monitoring the local seismic noise. Most of the energy carried by the seismic waves is due to the microseisms below 1 Hz, showing a significant correlation with the waves of the west Mediterranean sea. Above 1 Hz the seismic noise in the underground levels of the mine approaches the Peterson's low noise model. Exploiting mine blasting works into the former mine, we were also able to perform active seismic measurements to evaluate the seismic waves propagation across the area. In conclusion we also give a first assessment about the acoustic and magnetic noise in this underground site.
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