Posted by Angela Miller on Wed, Aug 18, 2010
Scottsdale, AZ (USA) and Neuchâtel (Switzerland), August 17, 2010: Digitexx Inc and Colibrys SA announced today the successful results of an innovative mobile Structural Health Monitoring system deployed since March in a newly constructed building in Vina del Mar, Chile. The system has 16 Colibrys MEMS based accelerometers embedded throughout the building to monitor the integrity of the building structure during ongoing construction these past months.
The Digitexx PDAQ (Portable Data Acquisition System) is an all-inclusive, fully-portable, battery or AC power operated 16 channel system with integrated hardware and software to measure, record, broadcast and analyze building dynamic response. The system is used for Structural Health Monitoring. Real-time streaming acceleration data is provided both locally as well as remotely via a proprietary Client Software transmitted via the Internet. When an event happens, such as an earthquake or an aftershock, and any pre-set thresholds are surpassed, an email alert goes out. To date the system has recorded 100’s of aftershocks.
Digitexx was invited by EERI (Earthquake Engineering Research Institute) to participate on the Instrumentation Team of the Earthquake Reconnaissance in March following the 8.8 magnitude in Chile late February. While on location, Digitexx brought a PDAQ to instrument a building with a common architectural design to most urban commercial/residential space in Chile. In a matter of hours, the system was installed and fully functioning and continues to run today. Data is now being viewed and analyzed locally in Chile as well as by earthquake and structural engineering institutions in the United States and throughout the world.
“We are extremely proud to provide a tool for the benefit of earthquake engineering research”, stated Mark Sereci, CEO of Digitexx. “The rapid deployment of a portable, Structural Health Monitoring System has enabled post earthquake construction to proceed with knowledge despite repeated aftershocks. The system provides building structural engineers with real-time data to compare to their calculations of the building’s key parameters (natural frequency, modes, damping, etc.). In addition, the multiple remote-access Clients have allowed visibility to real-time data and analysis across the globe which can prove an invaluable aid in the development of future seismic building codes”.
The Colibrys CEO, Sean Neylon, was proud to state “We are excited to be a part of a system and project that provides such important data in our global quest to learn how to save lives when natural events such as earthquakes take place. The MEMS Seismic sensors incorporated into the accelerometers have confirmed once again their value as highly robust, high sensitivity, low current solution to help feed Building Monitoring systems. We are extremely proud at Colibrys in leading the world in the design and fabrication of MEMS Seismic sensors. Most of all we are extremely pleased to see our products used for the benefit of the Chilean people who continue to endure such extremely difficult times”.
Further information:
Digitexx Data Systems Inc: Founded in 2000, Digitexx was the first company in the industry to develop real-time Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) systems for a variety of structural applications including: bridges, buildings, dams, wind turbines, oil rigs and more. Digitexx's innovative and low-cost real-time Structural Health Monitoring systems assist engineers with non-destructive testing and early structural damage detection. When a natural or man-made event happens and a pre-set threshold has been triggered, the Digitexx Structural Health Monitoring system sends out an alert to designated parties providing them with immediate information to assist in rapid emergency response as well as repair and maintenance planning. Ultimately, Digitexx solutions help arm our customers with the tools and information to make informed decisions quickly. For more information and to view our introductory video, go to www.digitexx.com.
Colibrys SA: Colibrys is a world-leading supplier of standard and semi-custom MEMS based motion sensors to the harsh-environment (Military, Aerospace and Energy) and safety critical (Industrial and Instrumentation) applications. Colibrys has the full breadth of Microsystems capability, undertaking design, development, wafer fab manufacture, packaging and test of hybrid MEMS components. Additional information is available at www.colibrys.com.
Posted by Angela Miller on Wed, Aug 11, 2010
In most of life's situations, you either play the role of student or teacher and in some cases, a bit of both. Today, we would like take on the educator role and begin a series of articles answering some of the questions we have gotten over the past decade from some of our clients. Since Structural Health Monitoring is still in it's infancy, we figured what our clients asked, you might too want to know the answers to as well.
TODAY'S QUESTION: This question came from an academic professional looking for a solution for their structural engineering lab.
"We work with various sensor types with our different structural research projects, can your system handle different sensor inputs?"
ANSWER: Yes, our structural health monitoring system was originially developed to be flexible and accept multiple and varying sensor-type inputs. For instance, below is a system for a 122 channel system for a bridge. In this case, the system incorporates accelerometer
s (uni and tri-axial), traditional strain gauges and environmental sensors to measure temperature, wind speed and direction. We have also worked with other structural monitoring sensor inputs such as:
- Strain Gauges:
- Traditional (mentioned above)
- Fiber Optic
- Vibrating Wire
- Various Temperature Sensors:
- Thermistor
- RDT's
- Thermocouples
- Displacement:
- LDVT's
- Extensionmeters
- String Pontentiometers
- Streaming Video
Posted by Angela Miller on Fri, Jul 23, 2010
Digitexx will be exhibiting at the upcoming 9th US National/10th Canadian Conference on Earthquake Engineering July 25 to 29th, 2010 located at the Westin Harbour Castle in downtown Toronto. At the Digitexx booth, 208 and 210, we will be showcasing one of our newest products, the PDAQ Premium. This new unit provides real-time data acquisition and remote data streaming and analysis for structure health monitoring and testing. Attendees will be able to get hands-on demonstrations of the unit and it's remote, real-time capabilities.
For more information about the conference, please go to: http://2010eqconf.org/
Posted by Angela Miller on Tue, May 25, 2010
Digitexx VP/COO, Robert Sereci, was featured yesterday on Phoenix's ABC 15 Nightly news. Reporter, Christopher Sign, came to Digitexx to learn more about our structural health monitoring systems and how they can be used not only in seismically active areas (earthquake zones) but also incorporated on deteriorating infrastructure such as bridges.
Specifically shown was our PDAQ Premium device which is a 16-channel system that incorporates both local recording as well as remote management through the Digitexx Client Software program. Structural engineers use this system on buildings and bridges to determine a structure's baseline natural frequency, set triggers (thresholds) and then get alerted anytime a trigger threshold is exceeded.
To view the full story, go to: http://bit.ly/ahHVE6
Posted by Angela Miller on Mon, May 24, 2010
Today, Arizona, the location for Digitexx Data Systems, Inc. headquarter's office, experienced its second earthquake within the last 60 days. This earthquake struck 170 miles east of Phoenix outside the small town, Clifton, AZ. Magnitude 3.7.
See more detailed information on the USGS website at: http://neic.usgs.gov/neis/last_event_states/states_arizona.html
Posted by Angela Miller on Mon, Mar 15, 2010
Mark Sereci, President, and Aditya Jain, Electrical Engineer, from Digitexx joined the EERI Reconnaissance Team in Santiago, Chile this weekend. They will be serving on the Instrumentation Team and recently reported working on instrumenting a 23 story building. They brought just "a few bags" with them as pictured. Most included special equipment for the trip.
Posted by Angela Miller on Thu, Feb 04, 2010
Digitexx COO, Robert Sereci, was interviewed by San Francisco's KTVU local news. Digitexx is attending and exhibiting in San Francisco at the EERI (Earthquake Engineering Research Institute) Annual Meeting taking place this week. The interview will be featured this evening on the 6:00pm primetime news.
Digitexx is exhibiting our real-time structural health monitoring system technology. At the exhibit, structural status data is being streamed live directly from some of San Francisco's buildings. Digitexx technology has been used to monitor some key buildings in the Bay area since 2002.
Be sure to catch the interview!
Posted by Angela Miller on Tue, Jan 12, 2010
Jon Keech presented at the TRB Committee Meeting for Seismic Design & Performance for Bridges on Monday, January 11. The Board was presented with a brief overview on the benefits of real-time Structural Health Monitoring as well as some updates on current bridge projects in Canada and Greece located in seismically active areas.
Posted by Angela Miller on Tue, Dec 15, 2009
Digitexx showcasing live demonstrations of real-time SHM of existing projects. See us at booth 107.
Posted by Angela Miller on Fri, Dec 11, 2009
Fantastic show in San Francisco. Definite interest in the benefits of real-time Structural Health Monitoring.
