Scouting the cracks you can’t see
If you got a D+ in school, you’d want a professor to help you. Recently, the American Society of Civil Engineers gave the United States’ infrastructure a D+ as part of its nationwide review. Naturally, Didem Ozevin, associate professor of civil, materials, and environmental engineering, wants to help.
Ozevin is working on a way to improve diagnostics of roads, bridges, pipelines, and other structures using micro-electromechanical systems, or MEMS, sensors that will track “acoustic emission.”
Acoustic emission finds cracks by listening for them—and allows them to be discovered even before they are visible. The method can detect damage, pinpoint its location, and give experts a sense of how severe it is. The problem? The acoustic emission sensors available today are bulky, expensive, and significantly influenced by background noise.
Ozevin’s MEMS devices, by contrast, will be low-cost, require low amounts of power, and provide vast amounts of accurate information. They “will take the technology to the next level by collecting big and reliable data from infrastructures,” she said.