Tarek Abdoun, assistant professor and manager of Rensselaer’s Geotechnical Centrifuge Research Center, is leading a team of scientists to develop a wireless sensor designed to warn against geotechnical hazards such as earthquakes, landslides, and floods. The research team includes Alhussein Abouzeid, assistant professor of electrical, computer, and systems engineering, and Mourad Zeghal, assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering.

“Recent advances in sensors and wireless networking technologies provide opportunities for new ways to detect and assess the impact of natural disasters,” says Abdoun. “The new system is designed to enable a better understanding of ground failure mechanisms and has the potential to significantly reduce losses from natural disasters.”

The team’s sensor is a long rope about one inch in diameter consisting of various sensors and packed into PVC piping. The system is water-resistant and can be inserted into the ground up to 30 meters. The advanced sensor uses fiber-optic and micro-electro-mechanical-system technologies to simultaneously measure key indicators of impending ground failure — ground deformation and soil acceleration. Each sensor is connected to a wireless node to enable real-time monitoring, as well as remote sensor configuration.

“Real-time monitoring would allow for early detection and warning of geotechnical hazards, such as landslides, and help facilitate evacuations,” says Abdoun.

According to Abdoun, real-time remote monitoring could replace manual sensors used by many state and federal agencies and eliminate the need to physically visit each site to take measurements and readings. The traditional manual systems provide limited monitoring capability — sensing acceleration or deformation readings, not both — and prove to be expensive, he says. Initial estimates indicate the new prototype would cost less than one-tenth of traditional sensors.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and California’s Department of Transportation are sponsoring the field implementation effort of Rensselaer’s new system at four different sites.

The new system was recently tested at the National Research Institute for Earth Science and Disaster Prevention in Tsukuba, Japan, home of the world’s largest shake table for earthquake simulation. The team’s work was recently featured in the September 2004 edition of Civil Engineering, the magazine of the American Society of Civil Engineers.

Published December 1, 2004