Infrastructure scour risk assessment using instrumented particles

Abstract

An instrumented sphere, namely “smart-sphere”, has been developed to monitor the risk to infrastructure scour, by assessing the hydrodynamic forces acting on it, near the bed surface. The “smart-sphere” is fitted with inertial sensors (MEMS, such as accelerometers and angular displacement sensors), which enable recording the particle's three-dimensional displacement. The sensor logs (6 inertial axis measurement) data at a configurable rate of 200-1000Hz. The obtained data are safely stored in an internal memory unit and downloadable to a PC in an easy fashion and in a usable human readable state.