Zhang Awarded NSF Grant

The Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering's Yunfeng Zhang has been awarded a National Science Foundation (NSF) grant. The title of the project is "Collaborative Research: Sensor Fusion for Comprehensive Health Monitoring of Complex Infrastructure Systems - An International Testbed Opportunity." The initial amendment date for the project was January 5, 2009.

According to Zhang, "Deterioration of large infrastructure systems is a common, yet complex problem that requires innovative sensor technologies to address. This collaborative research project is focused upon the integration of five emerging sensor technologies that when fused into a structural health monitoring (SHM) system, have the potential to accurately identify structural distress."

Zhang will test his piezoelectric paint sensor as a local passive device to monitor the imminent cracks from fatigue failure in steel bridges and overloading to concrete girder bridge girder on several high bridges in South Korea.

Please click here for the NSF announcement.