On May 31th, the Initiation Conference of GeoSHM (GNSS and Earth Observation for Structural Health Monitoring) which is jointly sponsored by BRDI and the University of Nottingham was held in Wuhan. Domestic and foreign attendees to this conference included the University of Nottingham, AECOM, GVL, Wuhan Urban Road and Bridge Toll Management Co., Ltd., the Tongji University, the Wuhan University and the Wuhan University of Technology. The Party Secretary Tian Daoming, Chief Engineer Gao Zongyu and Vice General Manager Huang Yanqing of BRDI, together with officials from Bridge and Tunnel Inspect & Retrofit Co., Ltd. and Survey Institute attended the conference.
GeoSHM is an innovative monitoring system developed by BRDI and the University of Nottingham. GeoSHM integrates global navigation satellite system and earth observing technology, providing a real-time monitoring on the structure conditions of major bridges for a comprehensive understanding of bridge structure and operation conditions. Therefore, timely maintenance can be conducted based on the situations. GeoSHM has been used on Forth Road Bridge in Scotland, which is one of the longest bridges in Europe.
Five domestic and foreign experts delivered lectures on the conference for academic exchange: “An Introduction about GeoSHM Demonstration Project” by Dr. Meng Xiaoling; “Bridge Heath Monitoring of BRDI” by Mr. Yue Qing; “Bridge Structure Heath Monitoring of AECOM” by Mr. Barry Colford; “The Application of Earth Observing Technology in Cities and Infrastructure Monitoring” by Mr. Paul Bhatia and “Control and Measurement System of Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge” by Mr. Xiong Wei. Attendees had detailed discussions on the development of bridge health monitoring industry after the seminar.
With the development and promotion for over 10 years, bridge health monitoring technologies have been increasingly valued by domestic and foreign owners and experts. GeoSHM is the first project that BRDI is cooperated with a foreign university. Meanwhile it plays an important role in deepening the strategical cooperation with the University of Nottingham for promoting the bridge health monitoring technologies in the international market. Two representative bridges in China will be chosen as terminal users in the following step. BRDI will provide data analysis and pre-warning information as required by owners. Based on the experimental results, BRDI will develop bridge health monitoring standards, norms and product series to establish a complete bridge health monitoring system.
