Large Scale Simulation and Data Analysis
Ahmed Elgamal Professor and Chair
Department of Structural Engineering
University of California, San Diego
Abstract of Presentation
Information Technologies are increasingly allowing for advances in monitoring and analysis of structural response. Sensor networks provide real-time data streams, as a basis for system identification and decision-making. Fusion of video-derived information along with motion and strain sensors is already showing much promise. An integrated analysis framework encompasses data acquisition, database archiving, model-free/model-based system identification/data mining techniques, towards the development of practical decision-making tools. Within this framework, data from experiments continues to provide much needed physical insights, as a basis for calibration of appropriate numerical models. In this regard, large-scale parallel computations and powerful visualization tools of soil-structure systems are a necessity.
Biography
Ahmed Elgamal received his Ph.D. from Princeton University in 1984. He joined UCSD in 1997 as Professor after a post-doctoral appointment at the California Institute of Technology (1985-86), and faculty positions at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (1986-96), and Columbia University (1996-97). Professor Elgamal is currently serving as Chair of the Department of Structural Engineering. In 1990, he received the NSF Presidential Young Investigator award. He also received the Shamsher Prakash Award in 1996. At Rensselaer, he co-developed the RPI geotechnical centrifuge-testing center, and served as the center Technical Director. Currently, he serves as the Geotechnical Thrust Area Leader of the Pacific Earthquake Engineering Research (PEER) Center. His areas of research interest include experimental and computational simulation of liquefaction and related retrofitting mitigation technologies, Information Technology applications in Civil Engineering Research and Education, and interpretation of recorded downhole seismic response through system-identification procedures. He has conducted studies related to ground motion amplification, liquefaction and lateral spreading, dynamic response of earth dams and retaining walls, and seismic response of landfills. Incorporation of information technologies into structural engineering is currently among his main research areas. Internet applications include sensor networks for monitoring our civil infrastructure, with real-time condition assessment and decision-making algorithms (http://healthmonitoring.ucsd.edu ). Integration of research and education with live web-accessible experiments is a main interest (http://webshaker.ucsd.edu ). He is author and coauthor of 150 technical publications.
Computational and Hybrid Multi-platform Earthquake Analysis of Interacting Geotechnical-Structural Systems
Amr S. Elnashai and Oh-Sung Kwon Mid-America Earthquake Center
Civil and Environmental Engineering Department
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Abstract of Presentation
Detailed dynamic inelastic analysis of interacting soil and structure up to failure poses very considerable challenges to number of engineering sub-disciplines. Software platforms that offer reliable geotechnical models do not have suitable structural models and vice versa. An integrated structure, its foundations and underlying soil, such as a bridge for example, when modeled in 3D takes computational memory requirements to their limits, and extends analysis times to impractical levels. Finally, inclusion of uncertainty in models and input motion, to quantify uncertainty in earthquake safety assessment, requires running hundreds or even thousands of such large, complex and computationally demanding analyses. From an experimental viewpoint, the same is also true, but in a different manner. No single laboratory has the range of equipment to test soil and structure and certainly no space to test even a medium length bridge or a medium height building.
The paper presents a framework for the computational or hybrid (computational-experimental) investigation of complex structures, their foundations and underlying soil, when subject to earthquake strong-motion. Emphasis is placed on the computational structure developed for multi-platform inelastic earthquake analysis of complex multi-physics systems. The framework comprises a central integrator and peripheral components. The best available geotechnical and structural analysis platforms, whether they are commercial packages or research analysis tools, are combined to represent the most salient features of the response. In the examples presented in the paper, a complex bridge is modeled in ZEUS-NL, the structural computational platform of the Mid-America Earthquake Center, and OpenSees, the Pacific Earthquake Engineering Research Center product, where the soil strata are modeled in OpenSees using the UCSD geotechnical models. The simplicity and transparency of the approach used lend themselves to very quick implementation by research groups, and facilitate adding any number of analytical platforms. Application of the same approach to hybrid assessment, using a mix of analytical tools and experimental laboratory testing, is shown in the paper, as implemented in the University of Illinois NEES facility by the authors and their colleagues.
Biography
Amr Elnashai, Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering in the UK, is D.B.Willett Professor of Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Director of the Mid-America Earthquake Center. He is also Director of the George E. Brown Network for Earthquake Engineering Simulation (NEES) laboratory at Illinois. He is Fellow of the American Society of Civil Engineers and the UK Institution of Structural Engineers. A graduate of Cairo University, Amr obtained his MSc and PhD from Imperial College, University of London. Before joining the University of Illinois in 2001, Amr was Professor of Earthquake Engineering and Head of the Engineering Seismology and Earthquake Engineering Section at Imperial College. He is founder and co-editor of the Journal of Earthquake Engineering, a member of the drafting panel of the European seismic design codes and past senior Vice-President of the European Association of Earthquake Engineering. Amr has been Visiting Professor at the University of Surrey in the UK since 1997. Other visiting appointments include the University of Tokyo, the University of Southern California and the European School for Advanced Studies in Reduction of Seismic Risk, Italy, where he serves on the Board of Directors. Amr has worked in the field and reported on most of the damaging earthquakes around the world since the mid-eighties. His technical interests are experimental, analytical and field investigations of the seismic response of concrete, steel and composite buildings and bridges.
A Decade of Innovation in Project Based Learning and Architecture/Engineering/Construction Global Teamwork
Dr. Renate FruchterDirector of Project Based Learning Laboratory
http://pbl.stanford.edu
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Stanford University
Abstract of Presentation
Our mission is to prepare the next generation of architecture, engineering, construction (AEC) professionals who know how to team up with professionals from other disciplines and leverage the advantages of innovative collaboration technologies to produce higher quality products, faster, more economical, and environmentally friendly. The presentation will provide an overview of key objectives to build and sustain a working model for project based learning (PBL) and global teamwork programs. These will include:
- Critical life-cycle phases in establishing and sustaining a PBL program
- Key dimensions of PBL
- Roles of academia, industry, and government
- Challenges for learners, instructors, and the institution
- Benefits and lessons learned.
Biography
Dr. Renate Fruchter is the founding director of the Project Based Learning Laboratory (PBL Lab), and in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, and a Senior Research Associate thrust leader of "Collaboration Technologies" at the Center for Integrated Facilities Engineering (CIFE), at Stanford. Her interests focus on development and larger scale deployment of collaboration technologies that include Web-based team building, knowledge management, project memory, and corporate memory, mobile solutions for multi-disciplinary, global teamwork, and e-Learning. She is the founder of the PBL Lab and developer of the innovative "Computer Integrated A/E/C" CEE222/122 course launched in 1993 and offered in a global setting that engages universities from US, Japan, and Europe.
Sensors, Models and Videotape
Prof. Ian Smith IMAC - Applied Computing and Mechanics Laboratory
Structural Engineering Institute
School of Architecture, Civil and Environmental Engineering (ENAC)
EPFL - Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Switzerland
Abstract of Presentation
This paper examines opportunities and challenges that are related to the use of sensors in structural engineering and proposes strategies for appropriate interpretation of sensor data. The last ten years have brought many innovations in the field of measurement science. We are currently capable of measuring civil engineering phenomena using devices that employ technologies such as global positioning, acoustic emission, electric potential drop, interferometry, holography, photogrammetry, MEMS and optical fibers. Costs of equipment are dropping and more sensors are currently under development in laboratories. In structural engineering, the opportunities provided by this trend include increased decision support and better modeling possibilities. Such opportunities have the potential to lead to safer, longer-lasting and innovative structural systems.
Challenges include appropriate characterization of sensors, development of systematic methodologies for design of sensor systems, data interpretation and decision support. The most appropriate characteristics and the best methodologies for meeting these challenges are dependant on the context of the measurement task. In structural engineering, measurement systems are employed within four broad contexts. They are used for monitoring during construction, for warning devices within old structures that may collapse (or when an unlikely collapse would be catastrophic, for example, dams), for improving knowledge of the behavior of structures in service and for experimental research. Each context leads to different requirements for sensor precision, accuracy and stability as well as varying requirements for interpretation strategies.
Regardless of the context, advances in model-based diagnosis have created the potential for reliable and robust computer support in many situations. A new methodology for sensor placement using entropy is presented and a model based approach for structural diagnosis is used to illustrate the potential of multi-model reasoning. Use of multiple models and consideration of contextual parameters are important for making the most of the opportunities that are available. The paper finishes with the analogy of the paper title with the film ?Sex, lies and videotape? It is necessary to go beyond being dazzled by the technology of sensors (sex) and the misuse of engineering models (lies) so that the interpretations we derive from combining the two (videotape) are as useful as possible.
Biography
Ian F.C. Smith received his BASc in 1978 from the University of Waterloo, Canada and his PhD from the University of Cambridge, England in 1982. A Professor of Structural Engineering at the Ecole Polytechnique F?d?rale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Lausanne Switzerland, he is Head of the Applied Computing and Mechanics Laboratory (20 staff) and Chair of the Structural Engineering Institute (100 staff). In addition to sitting on four editorial boards of international journals he is Co-Editor-in-Chief of Advanced Engineering Informatics (Elsevier) and Associate Editor of Artificial Intelligence for Engineering, Design, Analysis and Manufacturing (Cambridge). He is the founder and Past Chair of the European Group for Intelligent Computing in Engineering (EG-ICE) and Past Chair of the Information Technology Committee of the International Association for Bridge and Structural Engineering. In 2003, he co-authored the text book Fundamentals of Computer Aided Engineering (Wiley). He sits on several ASCE technical committees including the Executive Committee of the Technical Council for Computing and Information Technology. He is a Fellow of ASCE and in 2004, he was elected to the Swiss Academy of Engineering Sciences.
Advanced Infrastructure Systems Definitions, Issues, Approaches, and Responsibilities
James H. Garrett, Jr.Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, College of Engineering
Professor, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA
Abstract of Presentation
Advanced Infrastructure Systems is defined here to refer to innovative systems, components, devices and processes that improve the performance and/or reduce the life-cycle cost of a broad range of physical infrastructure systems. For example, during the construction phase, the use of a variety of sensor systems, and information and communication technologies (ICT), will make it possible to collect data and immediately determine the state of the project, what problems are emerging or are likely to emerge, and what should be done to mitigate those problems. As another example, building commissioning would be conducted continuously using a wide range of sensor systems, some of which were deployed during the construction phase, to determine that the specified building performance is continuously maintained during building operation. As a last example, various data from highway bridges would be continuously collected and analyzed to determine usage, performance, and condition.
There are many technological developments and research projects that already support, or begin to support this vision, such as new extremely small and power efficient sensors and sensor systems, mobile and wearable computers and advanced human computer interfaces, new reliable and easily deployable communication mechanisms, new materials, new abilities to simulate complex behavior, availability of semantically-rich data models, new methods to mine the large amount of data collected to identify emerging damage states and behaviors, and formal model-based analysis and visualization approaches. Civil Engineers, not just electrical and computer engineers and computer scientists, can and should be involved in delivering this overall vision. To make this happen, we must have broad participation of civil engineering academics, the AEC industry and government. At Carnegie Mellon, we have a graduate program in Advanced Infrastructure Systems that graduates students able to help in defining and delivering this vision. Within industry, the construction consortium known as FIATECH is defining a roadmap for the creation and deployment of technology to radically improve the performance and quality of the construction industry. The National Academy of Engineering also promotes this need for systems level thinking about our infrastructure in their report entitled ?Engineer of 2020.? Finally, the government agencies, such as FHWA, are now promoting a vision for proactive use of sensing in the management of bridge networks.
Many different areas of research need to be addressed to move towards this vision, such as infrastructure-friendly sensors, analysis of heterogeneous data streams, various types of decision support, systems design, tools for design/maintenance of these systems, means to evaluate these systems). Some of this needed research is being conducted by the AIS group at Carnegie Mellon in areas such as sensor development for specific infrastructure sensing contexts (weld defect detection and chloride ion concentration sensors), system level approaches for using collections of sensors to detect construction deviations, advanced data management tools to improve classification and retrieval of the ever increasing amount of data generated by new data acquisition tools, novel data mining and analysis tools, and design environments for supporting the design and evaluation of sensor system designs.
What must happen in order to make this vision a reality? For example, FIATECH must succeed in unleashing larger amounts of funding to achieve this vision. Can we develop industry-oriented testbeds within which various technologies and approached can be tested and compared on a consistent basis? Do we know how well these complex ICT systems will perform before we deploy them on our infrastructure systems? How should we, academics, be updating the way we teach civil engineers (both undergraduates and graduate students) related to this AIS vision? What new types of knowledge must our students possess and what new technologies do our students need to know and apply in the future? What educational models are needed to educate and train the future generation of civil engineers to design and deploy sensor systems, advanced data management and analysis systems and novel decision support systems?
Biography
James H. Garrett, Jr. is a professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University. He is also currently the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs in the College of Engineering. He is a member of the Advanced Infrastructure Systems group in the CEE department and Director of the Advanced Infrastructure Systems Lab in the Institute for Complex Engineered Systems. His research and teaching interests are oriented toward applications of sensors and sensor systems to civil infrastructure condition assessment; mobile hardware/software systems for field applications; representations and processing strategies to support the usage of engineering codes, standards, and specifications; knowledge-based decision support systems; neural networks for modeling and interpretation problems in civil and environmental engineering. Garrett was awarded the ASCE Journal of Computing in Civil Engineering Best Paper Award in 2001 for the paper he co-authored with Han Kiliccote, entitled "Standards Usage Language (SUL): An Abstraction Boundary between Design Systems and Standards Processors." He is a co-recipient of the 1993 ASCE Wellington Prize for his paper entitled "Knowledge-Based Design of Signalized Intersections," which he co-authored with Rahim Benekohal and Jeffrey Linkenheld. He is also a co-recipient of the 1990 ASCE Moisseiff Award for his paper entitled "Knowledge-Based Standard-Independent Member Design", which he co-authored with Steven J. Fenves. In 1994, he was also a Humboldt Stipendiat and spent 6 months at the University of Karlsruhe and the Technical University Munich.
Engineering Web Services
Kincho H. LawProfessor of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Engineering Informatics Group
Stanford University
Stanford, CA 94305-4020
U.S.A.
Abstract of Presentation
The utilization of information and communication technology (ICT) plays an indispensable role throughout the life cycle project development and management of civil infrastructures. As software programs become more complex and communication technologies evolve, there is a paradigm change in how software services are built. Software development has shifted from focusing on programming towards focusing on integration and from standalone applications to distributed, Web-based or Web-enabled services. The web services model is becoming a popular approach for integrating engineering software applications and to improve the flexibility and extend the functionalities of an application by making it interoperable with other services. This presentation will discuss the basic concepts of web services technology and its potential applications in Civil Engineering. Some technical challenges in software composition and service integration will be discussed.
Biography
Kincho H. Law is currently a Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Stanford University. He received his BS in Civil Engineering and BA in Mathematics from the University of Hawaii, and his MS and PhD in Civil Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University. Professor Law?s professional and research interests focus on the application of advanced computing principles and techniques to structural and facility engineering. His work has dealt with various aspects of computational science and engineering, computer aided-design, regulatory and engineering information management, and engineering enterprise integration. Examples include application of artificial intelligence, information management and internet-based technologies to facilitate engineering analysis and design processes and to coordinate concurrent engineering activities. His research interests also include computational mechanics, structural dynamics and control, wireless sensing systems for structural health monitoring applications, numerical methods and analysis and simulation of large-scale systems using distributed and parallel computers. He has authored and co-authored over 250 publications in archived journals and proceedings.
