Newswise — The collapse of the I-35 bridge in Minneapolis has brought new urgency to the need to answer a longstanding question: How do we know a structure is safe?
For more than 35 years, scientists and engineers at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory have been assessing, developing and deploying sensor technology for evaluating material degradation associated with failure in steel, concrete, composite and other structures.
A major focus of current research is identification of the subtle microstructural changes in materials (changes at the microscopic level) that are precursors to crack formation and propagation.
Locating defects in materials prior to failure is important because, by the time some cracks are large enough to be detected visually or with conventional sensors, they may propagate very rapidly, resulting in unexpected failure.
Reporters and editors are invited to speak with PNNL civil infrastructure experts in the following areas:
· Diagnostics and prognostics· Inspection procedure development· System performance evaluation· Advanced R&D for civil infrastructure, utilities and manufacturing· Materials and structures characterization· Process monitoring, measurement and control
PNNL is a DOE Office of Science national laboratory that solves complex problems in energy, national security and the environment, and advances scientific frontiers in the chemical, biological, materials, environmental and computational sciences. PNNL employs 4,200 staff, has a $750 million annual budget, and has been managed by Ohio-based Battelle since the lab's inception in 1965.
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