A MEMS-based wireless sensor network (WSN) is developed for nondestructive monitoring of pipeline systems. It incorporates MEMS accelerometers for measuring vibration on the surface of a pipe to determine the change in water pressure caused by rupture and the damage location. This system enables various sensor boards and camera modules to be daisychained underground and to transmit data with a shared radio board for data uplink. Challenges include reliable long-range communication, precise time synchronization, effective bandwidth usage, and power management. The low-cost MEMS technology, saved wiring cost, and simple installation without destructive modification enable large-scale deployment at an affordable cost.

This paper discusses issues of using wireless sensor systems to monitor structures and pipelines in the case of disastrous events. The platforms are deployed and monitored remotely on lifetime systems, such as underground water pipelines. Although similar systems have been proposed for monitoring seismic events and the structure health of bridges and buildings, several fundamental differences necessitate adaptation or redesign of the module. Specifically, rupture detection in water delivery networks must respond to higher frequency and wider bandwidth than those used in the monitoring of seismic events, structures, or bridges. The monitoring and detection algorithms can also impose a wide range of requirements on the fidelity of the acquired data and the flexibility of wireless communication technologies. We employ a non-invasive methodology based on MEMS accelerometers to identify the damage location and to estimate the extent of the damage.The key issues are low-noise power supply, noise floor of sensors, higher sampling rate, and the relationship among displacement, frequency, and acceleration.Based on the mentioned methodology, PipeTECT, a smart wireless sensor platform was developed. The platform was validated on a bench-scale uniaxial shake table, a small-scale water pipe network, and portions of several regional water supply networks. The laboratory evaluation and the results obtained from a preliminary field deployment show that such key factors in the implementation are crucial to ensure high fidelity of the acquired data. This is expected to be helpful in the understanding of lifeline infrastructure behavior under disastrous events.

No abstract

No abstract

The objectives of our educational research are as follows: 1) Faculty from engineering and faculty from the social sciences and humanities shall develop strong working relationships and together implement and evaluate strategies for working across disciplines. 2) Students of engineering and their counterparts in the liberal arts and humanities shall engage in peer-to-peer learning and work together to solve problems. 3) Liberal arts and humanities content will be better integrated into the engineering curriculum. 4) Engineering students will understand the value and relevance of their General Education. 5) The engineering programs will be better positioned to assess their performances on the "soft skills" ABET outcomes (above) and improve these performances.We plan to accomplish the objectives of this initiative through the following strategies: 1) Establish Faculty Learning Communities (FLC) within each campus, comprising approximately 12 faculty in total taken from engineering and a number of different disciplines within the humanities. 2) Utilize and expand existing G.E. Paths to meet the needs of engineering students and the goals of this program. 3) Create new minor in Urban Sustainability/Citizenship/Engaged Citizen and incentivize engineering students to take it through advisement. 4) Identify engineering courses with potential for liberal arts integration and adopt a variety of strategies (team teaching, FLC development, online modules) for accomplishing this. 5) Develop new courses for engineers that integrate liberal arts using FLCs.