Long-term Measurement on Wood
In heritage collections and various structures, stresses in wood can occur due to temperature, moisture and relative humidity. Development of strain due to these stresses can lead to damage, fracture, permanent deformation. Therefore, it is important that the strain in the wood caused by environmental variations is continuously monitored. For these varying environmental conditions, the wooden objects must continuously adapt themselves. There are some monitoring methods that help in determining whether the dimensional changes of wood are acceptable. Strain gauges are one of the monitoring methods that can be used in this scenario. For a heterogeneous material like wood, a...
Axial Strain Measurement on Tension Rods of Architectural Structures
Tension rods are one of the key components used in the architectural and engineering design of an aseismic reinforcement structure, bridges and buildings. They are used as the means of transferring large forces over long distances in the structures. They work at high proportions of their tensile strength to keep the structure intact. However, a single failure on one of the connectors can raise the possibility of a potential collapse. These failures can be attributed to factors such as material quality, dimensional inaccuracy or misalignment of end connections causing sensitivity to the secondary stresses. In order to measure the axial strain of tension rod used in...
Measurement of Residual Stress in a Weld Bead
Component welding is practiced in the manufacturing of various products in the industrial scale. During this process, some of the welded material gets deposited along the welding pass which causes stress concentration. A combination of residual stress and external loads tends to produce weld deformation which increases the stress concentration when the operating load is applied. This affects the quality of the components and their service life. Therefore, for measuring the residual stress in the weld beads, frictional strain gauges are employed. The problem with using the conventional strain gauge, in this case, is that it cannot function well in conditions such as high temperatures...
Load Testing in Asphalt Pavement
The design and structure of asphalt pavement are targetted at providing resistance against traffic loads and climatic impacts over its operating life. These pavements are constantly at the risk of development failures due to load. Therefore, it is essential to monitor the pavement in real-time and collect practical data to facilitate the analysis to produce predictive models. To achieve this, there are means to validate theoretical models by measuring the mechanical response induced by traffic and climatic impact. These tests are performed on full-scale pavements for the measurement of stresses, strains and deformations in pavement structures. For this application, special strain gauges, particularly designed for asphalt...
Obstacle recognition on climbing robots
Automation and new technologies are being used in many industries these days. A climbing robot “MANOLA” is an example of advanced technology that is developed by the Institute for Technology and Management in Construction at KIT. The robot is an apt solution for dismantling contaminated buildings. It is equipped with two laser scanners that enable it to detect any obstacles in its path that can damage the sensitive detector, making it more efficient than humans for this type of work. The scanCONTROL 2600 sensors with 100mm measuring range by Micro-Epsilon are integrated on the robot arm near the detector. The...
