Special Issue on Experimental Methods in Damage Detection and Wind Engineering

Experiments are the basic component of the scientific approach in exploring various aspects of a problem in engineering or in any other field in the physical sciences. Advancement of research in various areas of engineering and the expected accuracy, resolution, robustness, and reliability of experimental systems demand advanced experimental methods, types, and instrumentation. New developments in sensing technology, wireless networking of smart sensors, exponential growth of wireless communication, availability of high-speed Internet and cloud computation, increased resolution of measurements, and many other resources, combined with efficient analytical tools, can address this demand and help in robust and accurate short-term experiments or long-term health monitoring and damage detection.

Civil engineers, similar to their colleagues in other fields of engineering and physical sciences, conduct a relatively large number of laboratory tests in subjects related to geotechnical, environmental, transportation, water resources, wind, and structural engineering. This includes subjects such as utilizing nanotechnology to enhance the strength, performance, and reliability of civil structures and long-term health monitoring to maintain the nation’s aging civil infrastructures like bridges and buildings. The purpose of the ASCE Experimental Analysis and Instrumentation (EA&I) Committee as one of the technical committees of the ASCE Engineering Mechanics Institute (EMI) is to foster the development and use of experimental methods, novel instrumentation, and the utilization of new experimental techniques in civil engineering applications. This covers issues ranging from design of an experiment to instrumentation, numerical methods, and data analysis.

Progressive collapse of a number of aging bridges and buildings in recent years was initiated by local damage that was not detectable by visual inspection or other conventional methods. Damage detection is a necessary part of a system in the continuous monitoring of bridges, buildings, and other important components of the nation’s civil infrastructure. Also, the increasing number of hurricanes and tornadoes and their destructive effects necessitates more wind-related research to enhance the current knowledge base on wind engineering and to address the possible need of code revisions and refinement of design procedures.

Considering these issues, the ASCE EA&I Committee sponsored and organized two symposia, “Subsurface Imaging, Feature Identification and Damage Detection” and “Workshop on State-of-the-Art Experimental Approaches for Wind Engineering and Wind Energy,” with multiple sessions during the EMI 2011 Conference at Northeastern University. For the EMI/PMC 2012 Conference at the University of Notre Dame, the committee organized two symposia, “Experimental, Numerical and Analytical Study of Wind Effects to Promote Sustainable Civil Infrastructures” and “Sensor Technologies and Health Monitoring of Civil Infrastructure Systems.” Also, a student poster competition was planned under the general topic of experimental methods in damage detection and wind engineering.

The call for papers for this special issue on experimental methods in damage detection and wind engineering followed the EMI 2011 Conference. Sixteen peer-reviewed papers, eight in the field of damage detection and eight related to wind engineering, are published in this special issue. Remote wave-guide acoustic emission techniques for sensing the condition of structures operating in extreme environments (Hurley et al.), development of a new air-coupled ultrawideband ground-penetrating radar for highway pavement and bridge deck inspections (Xu et al.), and using laser speckle to determine the transfer length in pretensioned concrete members (Zhao et al.) are among the subjects discussed in the field of damage detection. Using a wireless multisensor network system to collect roof wind pressure data (Subramanian et al.), implementation of a combined analytical-numerical-experimental approach to evaluate instantaneous wind forces and moments on bridge decks using velocity fields and their derivatives (Zhang et al.), and experimental assessment of traffic impacts on flutter derivatives of the modified bridge cross section due to the presence of traffic (Chen et al.) are three of the eight subjects in the field of wind engineering. The hope is that this special issue will add to the existing knowledge base on experimental methods in damage detection and wind engineering.