The system will provide immediate and continuously updated data on the status of the structure in terms of its strength and functionality
A great help is being added to the damage control procedures in buildings after disasters, thanks to modern technology, which belongs to the European research project RECONASS, which is coordinated by the Research University Institute of Communications and Computer Systems (RICCS) of the National Technical University of Athens (NTUA).
The program aims to develop a "smart" system for monitoring structures, which will provide a reliable and continuous assessment of their static condition after a disaster (earthquake, explosion, etc.). The system will provide immediate and continuously updated data on the condition of the structure in terms of its strength and functionality.
RECONASS (Reconstruction and Recovery Planning: Rapid and Continuously Updated Construction Damage, and Related Needs Assessment) is co-funded by the European Union under the 7th Framework Programme for Research. The total budget of the project is €5.48 million, of which the European funding amounts to €4.26 million.
The project has a duration of 3.5 years (until May 2017) and is implemented by a consortium of nine partners from six European countries. In addition to EPISEY, the participating partners are the Technical University of Dresden (Germany), the University of Twente (The Netherlands), the Swedish Defence Research Agency, the German Federal Agency for Technical Rehabilitation, as well as companies from Greece (D. Bayraktaris), Germany, Italy and Switzerland.
In more detail, RECONASS will develop a monitoring system consisting of wireless position, strain, acceleration and temperature sensors, as well as the appropriate software, in order to assess the condition of the facilities from a static point of view, but also the needs in materials, costs and human resources for their restoration. The system will allow the data to be sent in near real time to a remote station, which will be responsible for their processing and for the further coordination of crisis management actions.
The new system, according to EPISEY researchers, can help:
– Repair work in the event of disasters to begin much earlier.
– Emergency crews to have important information at their disposal regarding the state of damage to facilities.
– The cost of disasters to be reduced, as the collapse of vulnerable infrastructure will be avoided in a timely manner. – The
need to demolish facilities to be known more quickly.
– The time that buildings remain non-functional and at the same time the financial losses from the cessation of their activities to be reduced.
– The condition of critical state infrastructure (hospitals, ministries, etc.) to be immediately assessed.
The first meeting of the project consortium was organized by EPISEY in Athens, on February 13-14.
Source: protothema.gr
