Transport infrastructure surveillance and monitoring by electromagnetic sensing: the ISTIMES project.

The ISTIMES project, funded by the European Commission in the frame of a joint Call "ICT and Security" of the Seventh Framework Programme, is presented and preliminary research results are discussed. The main objective of the ISTIMES project is to design, assess and promote an Information and Communication Technologies (ICT)-based system, exploiting distributed and local sensors, for non-destructive electromagnetic monitoring of critical transport infrastructures. The integration of electromagnetic technologies with new ICT information and telecommunications systems enables remotely controlled monitoring and surveillance and real time data imaging of the critical transport infrastructures. The project exploits different non-invasive imaging technologies based on electromagnetic sensing (optic fiber sensors, Synthetic Aperture Radar satellite platform based, hyperspectral spectroscopy, Infrared thermography, Ground Penetrating Radar-, low-frequency geophysical techniques, Ground based systems for displacement monitoring). In this paper, we show the preliminary results arising from the GPR and infrared thermographic measurements carried out on the Musmeci bridge in Potenza, located in a highly seismic area of the Apennine chain (Southern Italy) and representing one of the test beds of the project.

Seismic isolation of railway bridges

Railway bridges are peculiar structural systems, where the structure interacts with tracks and vehicles in a complicated manner, involving strongly nonlinear effects. The interaction effects under earthquakes are particularly difficult to be understood and evaluated. Peculiar aspects, such as the nonlinear behavior of track-bridge interface (ballast), the dynamic behavior of train vehicles, the unilateral contact constraint between wheel and rail, between rail and deck as well as in the deck bearings, have to be taken into account. They need a full three-dimensional analysis, taking into account all the nonlinear phenomena occuring in both the structure and the track.(AU)

Seismic vulnerability evaluation and damage scenarios

Some conceptual aspects of vulnerability evaluation are firstly examined. The need for experiments, either real or virtual, is recognized as a key for understanding and classifying the various methods. The discussion on damage scenarios is restricted to damage to constructions, leaving apart damage to contents, casualties and economic losses, whose assessment is at an earlier stage.(AU)