Academic wins £100,000 grant for acoustic monitoring work
A LOUGHBOROUGH University academic has been awarded £100,000 to develop new systems that can ‘hear’ when the ground under building, transport and energy networks is starting to deteriorate.
Dr Alister Smith, of the School of Architecture, Building and Civil Engineering, has been named as one of the winners of the sought-after Philip Leverhulme Prizes, which are given to researchers whose work has already attracted international recognition and whose future career is “exceptionally promising”.
Dr Smith’s research is focused on developing new ways to make infrastructures more resilient and he is the principal investigator of a research programme, titled Listening to Infrastructure (LTI).
He will use the funding to build on LTI research, which is looking at enhancing acoustic emission monitoring systems – technology that can detect ground deterioration by picking up sounds caused by soil moving.
Infrastructures and buildings are designed to rest on or in soil. However, soil behaviour is highly complex and its mechanical properties, such as strength, can change with time.
This means structures buried underground and supported by soil that have been stable for a long time – such as building foundations, tunnels and dams – can begin to move and collapse many years after construction, without warning.
Recent examples of deteriorated infrastructures include the Whaley Bridge dam at Toddbrook Reservoir in Derbyshire and the deadly collapse of a mining dam in the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais.
Dr Smith’s research is looking at how artificial intelligence can be used to overcome the challenges.
He envisages systems being made up of sensors connected to infrastructure assets that are constantly ‘listening’ to it and the surrounding soil.
Dr Smith said: “If we can listen to geotechnical assets with intelligent sensors – analogous to a stethoscope being used to listen to a patient’s heartbeat – we will be able to provide information on the condition of infrastructure and early warning of deterioration in real-time.”