Measuring Equipment for Fast Electrical Recording of Mechanical, Climatic Parameters in Mobile and Stationary Use

On the one hand, the measurement equipment is used for component tests and tests on fasteners in the laboratory or in situ, in which the condition with regard to structural safety and reliability is examined under short-term loads. On the other hand, the measurement technology equipment is to be used for the permanent condition investigation of critical load-bearing structures within a monitoring system. Changes in condition will be recorded online and in real time, so that a rapid response is possible if necessary.

Climate protection and resource conservation provide strong impulses for our actions. A significant contribution will be our efforts to use our existing buildings as long as possible or – if necessary – to convert them and – if possible – to maintain them long beyond their predicted lifespan or to repair them individually in a way that protects the property and resources. This is only possible if we know our existing buildings. Projects and research activities in building preservation strive for this knowledge.

The project ensures that the Structural Engineering Laboratory can not only maintain its activities, but expand them and provide new impetus. This is especially true in light of the fact that with the new appointments of the past few years, there is a larger number of professorships conducting experimental research. The acquisition of the new measuring technology primarily promotes research projects for monitoring the stability of structures – structural health monitoring –, for strengthening structures, for example masonry, for innovative composite structures in timber and steel construction as well as for systematising and evaluating the load-bearing behaviour of historical ceiling structures.

The measuring system's remote interrogation capability and mobile applicability also offer the option of continuously monitoring structures that lie outside the usual range of the laboratory. This leads to an increase in the number of possible examination objects and thus to an improved selection possibility within the scope of necessary in situ examinations. The new measurement technology also offers the opportunity to enter the promising research and investigation field of "Structural Health Monitoring" of infrastructure structures. The beginnings of online-based "structural health monitoring" date back some 15 to 20 years. Due to the continuous further development and perfection of the technology for measurement data acquisition and transmission in the recent past, new fields of application could be opened up within the framework of national and international research and development projects. The research and application field "Structural Health Monitoring" is very heterogeneous. Stagnation is not in sight; on the contrary, it is to be expected that it will gain in importance and scope with increasing application to infrastructure structures.

With this research project, the Structural Engineering Laboratory aims to expand the field of application. To strengthen the regional research network, the University of Applied Sciences Potsdam is striving for cooperation with the TH Brandenburg in the field of sensor technology and digital measurement monitoring. The cooperation with our national and international partners will lead to a lively transfer of knowledge, which will contribute to the further development and strengthening of our fields of expertise. In summary, it can be said that "Structural Health Monitoring" is an area of the future and can make a decisive contribution to the further profile of the Structural Engineering Laboratory and thus of the University of Applied Sciences Potsdam. The measurement technology also offers extended possibilities for measuring strain and compression with the help of fibre bragg technology, which enables deformation monitoring of very inhomogeneous test specimens, such as are very often found in historical constructions. Overall, the project thus expands the research and action options of the research fields of building preservation and experimental structural analysis by significant factors.