The Experts below are selected from a list of 6663 Experts worldwide ranked by ideXlab platform
Ulrike Dackermann - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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novel hybrid method based on advanced signal processing and soft computing techniques for condition assessment of timber Utility Poles
Journal of Aerospace Engineering, 2019Co-Authors: Mahbube Subhani, Ulrike DackermannAbstract:AbstractRecently, a variety of nondestructive evaluation (NDE) approaches have been developed for health assessment and residual capacity estimation of timber structures. Among these methods, guide...
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wavelet packet energy based damage identification of wood Utility Poles using support vector machine multi classifier and evidence theory
Structural Health Monitoring-an International Journal, 2019Co-Authors: Ulrike Dackermann, Ernst NiederleithingerAbstract:This article presents a novel assessment framework to identify the health condition of wood Utility Poles. The innovative approach is based on the integration of data mining and machine learning me...
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condition assessment of foundation piles and Utility Poles based on guided wave propagation using a network of tactile transducers and support vector machines
Sensors, 2017Co-Authors: Ulrike Dackermann, Ernst Niederleithinger, Herbert WiggenhauserAbstract:This paper presents a novel non-destructive testing and health monitoring system using a network of tactile transducers and accelerometers for the condition assessment and damage classification of foundation piles and Utility Poles. While in traditional pile integrity testing an impact hammer with broadband frequency excitation is typically used, the proposed testing system utilizes an innovative excitation system based on a network of tactile transducers to induce controlled narrow-band frequency stress waves. Thereby, the simultaneous excitation of multiple stress wave types and modes is avoided (or at least reduced), and targeted wave forms can be generated. The new testing system enables the testing and monitoring of foundation piles and Utility Poles where the top is inaccessible, making the new testing system suitable, for example, for the condition assessment of pile structures with obstructed heads and of Poles with live wires. For system validation, the new system was experimentally tested on nine timber and concrete Poles that were inflicted with several types of damage. The tactile transducers were excited with continuous sine wave signals of 1 kHz frequency. Support vector machines were employed together with advanced signal processing algorithms to distinguish recorded stress wave signals from pole structures with different types of damage. The results show that using fast Fourier transform signals, combined with principal component analysis as the input feature vector for support vector machine (SVM) classifiers with different kernel functions, can achieve damage classification with accuracies of 92.5% ± 7.5%.
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limitation of the lateral angled broadband low frequency impact excitation on the non destructive condition assessment of the timber Utility Poles
International Journal of Advancements in Technology, 2017Co-Authors: Bahram Jozi, Bijan Samali, Robin Braun, Jianchun Li, Ulrike DackermannAbstract:Timber Utility Poles play a significant role in the infrastructure of Australia as well as many other countries for power distribution and communication networks. Due to the advanced age of Australia’s timber pole infrastructure, substantial efforts are undertaken on maintenance and asset management to avoid any failures of the Utility lines. Nevertheless, the lack of reliable tools for assessing the condition of in-service Poles seriously jeopardizes the maintenance and asset management. For instance, each year approximately 300,000 Poles are replaced in the Eastern States of Australia with up to 80% of them still being in a very good condition, resulting in major waste of natural resources and money. Non-destructive testing (NDT) methods based on stress wave propagation can potentially offer simple and cost-effective tools for identifying the in-service condition of timber Poles. Nonetheless, most of the currently available methods are not appropriate for condition assessment of timber Poles in-service due to presence of uncertainties such as complicated material properties, environmental conditions, interaction of soil and structure, and an impact excitation type. In order to address these complexities, advanced digital signal processing methodologies are needed to be employed. Deterministic signal separation, blind signal separation, and frequency-wavenumber velocity filtering are the three groups of methodologies, which could most probably provide solutions. In this paper applicability and effectiveness of the blind signal separation methods is investigated through a numerical data obtained from of a timber pole modelled with both isotropic and orthotropic material properties. Principal Component Analysis (PCA), Singular Value Decomposition (SVD), and K-means clustering algorithms are the blind signal separation methodologies that are employed in this research work.
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load capacity prediction of in service timber Utility Poles considering wind load
Journal of Civil Structural Health Monitoring, 2016Co-Authors: N Yan, Ulrike Dackermann, Bijan SamaliAbstract:This paper presents a numerical investigation on the influence of different types of damage to the load capacity of in-service timber Utility Poles. Current design codes do not highlight a pole’s strength performance due to different types of damage. However, damages typically found in ageing timber Poles, such as damage due to fungus or termite attack, have very different characteristics and result in various effects on the strength properties of timber Poles. Hence, the presented study investigates the influence of typical common types of damage to the strength properties and load capacities of timber Utility Poles. The study considers the damage type, location and severity. Wind load is considered as critical load due to the practical issue. The research shows that external damages at ground level significantly affect the load capacity of a timber pole. While internal damage, such as termite nests, has less influence on the load capacity regardless of the damage location and severity.
Seokyon Hwang - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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Automatic Assessment and Prediction of the Resilience of Utility Poles Using Unmanned Aerial Vehicles and Computer Vision Techniques
International Journal of Disaster Risk Science, 2020Co-Authors: Md. Morshedul Alam, Berna Eren Tokgoz, Jing Zhang, Seokyon HwangAbstract:The Utility Poles of electric power distribution lines are very vulnerable to many natural hazards, while power outages due to pole failures can lead to adverse economic and social consequences. Utility companies, therefore, need to monitor the conditions of Poles regularly and predict their future conditions accurately and promptly to operate the distribution system continuously and safely. This article presents a novel pole monitoring method that uses state-of-the-art deep learning and computer vision methods to meet the need. The proposed method automatically captures the current pole inclination angles using an unmanned aerial vehicle. The method calculates the bending moment exerted on the Poles due to wind and gravitational forces, as well as cable weight, to compare it with the moment of rupture. The method also includes a machine learning-based model that is built by using a support vector machine to predict the resilience conditions of a pole after a wind event in a faster manner. The three modules of the proposed method are effective tools to classify pole conditions and are expected to enable Utility companies to increase the resilience of their systems.
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Framework for Measuring the Resilience of Utility Poles of an Electric Power Distribution Network
International Journal of Disaster Risk Science, 2019Co-Authors: Md. Morshedul Alam, Berna Eren Tokgoz, Seokyon HwangAbstract:The Utility Poles of an electric power distribution system are frequently damaged by wind-related disasters. This study notes that the wooden Poles are particularly vulnerable to such disasters and the failures of the Poles can cause a network-level failure leading to short- or long-term power outages. To mitigate the problem, this study proposes a framework for measuring the resilience of the wooden Utility Poles based on the angular deflection of a pole due to the wind force. Given the existing inclination angle of a pole, the angular deflection is measured by finite element analysis using ANSYS® Workbench1 to determine the resilience area under various wind speeds. For this, the conditions of load and support for a pole, which are called boundary conditions in ANSYS®, are generated. The proposed framework also includes an approach to cost–benefit analysis that compares different strategies for corrective action. The results of the case study in which the framework was applied show that the proposed framework can be effectively utilized by electric power distribution companies to increase the resilience of their systems.
Ernst Niederleithinger - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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wavelet packet energy based damage identification of wood Utility Poles using support vector machine multi classifier and evidence theory
Structural Health Monitoring-an International Journal, 2019Co-Authors: Ulrike Dackermann, Ernst NiederleithingerAbstract:This article presents a novel assessment framework to identify the health condition of wood Utility Poles. The innovative approach is based on the integration of data mining and machine learning me...
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condition assessment of foundation piles and Utility Poles based on guided wave propagation using a network of tactile transducers and support vector machines
Sensors, 2017Co-Authors: Ulrike Dackermann, Ernst Niederleithinger, Herbert WiggenhauserAbstract:This paper presents a novel non-destructive testing and health monitoring system using a network of tactile transducers and accelerometers for the condition assessment and damage classification of foundation piles and Utility Poles. While in traditional pile integrity testing an impact hammer with broadband frequency excitation is typically used, the proposed testing system utilizes an innovative excitation system based on a network of tactile transducers to induce controlled narrow-band frequency stress waves. Thereby, the simultaneous excitation of multiple stress wave types and modes is avoided (or at least reduced), and targeted wave forms can be generated. The new testing system enables the testing and monitoring of foundation piles and Utility Poles where the top is inaccessible, making the new testing system suitable, for example, for the condition assessment of pile structures with obstructed heads and of Poles with live wires. For system validation, the new system was experimentally tested on nine timber and concrete Poles that were inflicted with several types of damage. The tactile transducers were excited with continuous sine wave signals of 1 kHz frequency. Support vector machines were employed together with advanced signal processing algorithms to distinguish recorded stress wave signals from pole structures with different types of damage. The results show that using fast Fourier transform signals, combined with principal component analysis as the input feature vector for support vector machine (SVM) classifiers with different kernel functions, can achieve damage classification with accuracies of 92.5% ± 7.5%.
Ali El Hanandeh - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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Environmental and economic assessment of Utility Poles using life cycle approach
Clean Technologies and Environmental Policy, 2017Co-Authors: Hangyong Ray Lu, Ali El HanandehAbstract:Due to increasing demand for Utility Poles and the banning of native forests logging in Australia, it is necessary to find sustainable alternatives to roundwood Utility Poles. Currently, steel and concrete are the most common alternatives. Veneer-based composite (VBC) is a newly developed product made from hardwood plantation mid-thinning. To assess the viability of VBC, comparative life cycle assessment (LCA) and life cycle costing (LCC) analysis were conducted. Two end-of-life scenarios for VBC pole were assessed: incineration with energy recovery and landfilling. Five impact categories were considered: global warming (GWP); acidification (AP); eutrophication (EP); fossil depletion (FDP) and human toxicity (HTP). VBC pole with incineration showed the best environmental performance, particularly on GWP (63.22 kg-CO_2-eq), AP (0.29 kg-SO_2-eq), FDP (30.78 kg-Oil-eq) and HTP (2.27 kg-1,4-DB-eq), which are less than half of concrete and steel Poles. However, VBC had higher EP than concrete and steel due to use of adhesives and preservatives. VBC pole also had the lowest LCC ($1529), due to use of low-value materials and lower manufacturing cost. The LCC showed that both VBC scenarios performed equally on economic grounds. Sensitivity analysis showed that service life was the most sensitive parameter affecting both environmental and economic results, especially the VBC. Transportation distances and fossil fuel consumption also had significant effects on LCA result. Monte Carlo analysis further revealed that despite the high levels of uncertainties in the input parameters, the overall ranking of the options remained the same with VBC being the best performer and concrete the least.
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life cycle assessment of acq treated veneer based composite vbc hollow Utility Poles from hardwood plantation mid thinning
Sustainable Production and Consumption, 2016Co-Authors: Ali El HanandehAbstract:Abstract Hardwood plantations are slow to mature with low financial returns in the early stage. Veneer Based Composite (VBC) products developed from mid-thinning may improve the industry's profitability and win new markets. Due to the increasing demand for Utility Poles and the banning of native forests logging in Australia, VBC Poles may become viable alternative to native hardwood Poles. Alkaline copper quaternary (ACQ) preservative treated VBC pole was assessed using life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology. The manufacturing processes considered were based on the current technologies in Queensland. VBC pole life cycle stages assessed include mid-thinning, manufacturing, service-life, and disposal. Three end-of-life scenarios were considered: landfilling, incineration for energy recovery and recycling as particleboard. The functional unit used in this assessment is 1-metre-length pole with 115-mm internal-diameter and 15-mm wall-thickness. Global Warming Potential (GWP100), Fossil Depletion Potential (FDP), Acidification Potential (AP), Eutrophication Potential (EP), and Ecological Toxicity Potential (ETP) were quantified. Results indicated that landfilling and incineration outperform the recycling option. Incineration scenario performed slightly better under the GWP100 (0.3659kg-CO 2 -Eq), AP (2.12g-SO 2 -Eq), FDP (0.360kg-Oil-Eq) and EP (3.81g-PO 4 -Eq). Meanwhile, landfilling scenario had slightly less impact in ETP (12.32-CTUe). Despite generating valuable products, the burdens caused by secondary manufacturing and transportation overweighed credits earned from recycling. ACQ treatment, Phenol-formaldehyde (PF) resins production and transportation distances were identified as significant parameters affecting the final result. Sensitivity analysis indicated that EP was sensitive to change in ACQ consumption; ETP was affected by PF resin use while changing distances of transporting product affected GWP100, AP and FDP.
Stephen T Smith - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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life cycle assessment of pentachlorophenol treated wooden Utility Poles with comparisons to steel and concrete Utility Poles
Renewable & Sustainable Energy Reviews, 2011Co-Authors: Christopher A Bolin, Stephen T SmithAbstract:A cradle-to-grave life cycle assessment (LCA) was done to identify the environmental impacts related to pentachlorophenol (penta)-treated wooden Utility Poles. Penta-treated Utility Poles commonly are used for electricity distribution and transmission, and telecommunications. In addition, this LCA has evaluated the opportunities to reduce the environmental impacts associated with penta-treated Poles and has compared the penta-treated pole product to alternative products. A model of penta-treated Utility pole life cycle stages was created and used to determine inputs and outputs during the pole production, treating, service life, and disposal stages. Pole production data are based on published sources. Primary wood preservative treatment data were obtained by surveying wood treatment facilities in the United States. Product service life and disposal inventory data are based on published data and professional judgment. Life cycle inventory inputs, outputs, and impact indicators for penta-treated Utility Poles were quantified per pole. In a similar manner, an inventory model was developed for the manufacture, service life, and disposal of the primary alternative products: steel and spun concrete Utility Poles. Impact indicator values, including greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, fossil fuel and water use, and emissions with the potential to cause acidification, smog, ecological toxicity, and eutrophication were quantified for each of the pole products. The GHG, fossil fuel use, acidification, water use, eutrophication, and ecological toxicity impact indicator values for penta-treated Poles are less than those for concrete Poles. The GHG, fossil fuel use, acidification, water use, and ecological toxicity impact indicator values for penta-treated Poles are less than those for steel Poles. The values are about equal for eutrophication. The smog impact from penta-treated Poles is greater than the smog impact from both concrete and steel Poles.
