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The protection of infrastructures is a commercial and environmental challenge as it enables the useful life of these elements to be lengthened and avoids the early generation of residues.
The company AZVI, together with the Centre for Advanced Technologies in Mechanics (CATMech) at the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya - BarcelonaTech (UPC) and the UPC spin-off Composite Structural Engineering Solutions, SL (CSES) are working on the SAFEPASS project to study the protection of concrete bridges over motorways that are regularly affected by impacts of vehicles travelling with excess height.
SAFEPASS has several objectives. First, the aim is to ensure that no rubble detaches due to impacts, which ensures the safety of road users. Second, if an impact happens, the aim is to ensure that this does not compromise the durability of the structure, as the coating limits the penetration of agents (for example, water, oxygen and aggressive chemical products such as sulphates) that promote oxidation of the reinforcing bars. Third, the aim is to generate a damage detection system that can warn of a possible impact on the bridge deck, locate this impact and assess how severely it has affected the structure.
To achieve these objectives, a polyurea coating is proposed that will be studied from the theoretical perspective and through experimental tests to characterise this material and the structural response of concrete test specimens protected with polyurea against impacts. In this line, the capacity of polyurea to protect reinforced and prestressed concrete from corrosion will also be assessed. Finally, low-cost piezoelectric elements such as impact sensors will be used, due to their passive nature and their effective response to dynamic actions. Their output signals will contribute to categorising the damage level.
CATMech-UPC has extensive experience in the use of piezoelectric elements in mechanical systems and has suitable infrastructure for undertaking mechanical tests of greater complexity (impacts).
The expected results are being able to completely avoid detachments, lengthen the useful life of the infrastructures studied by 20% and identify the occurrence of a destructive impact, without false negatives.
Budget and funding
The project, which started in July 2022, has CDTI funding through the contract IDI-20221087. In addition, the collaboration of Tecnopol should be noted, which is a leader in the production of polyureas. CATMech-UPC, through a collaboration agreement that will end in December 2024, will handle a budget of €70,000.00 to develop the project.
Figure 1. Preliminary tests of polyurea under traction, with an elongation of over six times its original size.
Related Projects
- The Visualisation, Virtual Reality and Graphic Interaction Research Group (ViRVIG) at the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya - BarcelonaTech (UPC) has participated in the XR4ED project, an initiative that connects the educational technology (EdTech) and Extended Reality (XR) sectors, with the aim of transforming learning and training across Europe.
- The inLab FIB at the UPC has collaborated with Lizcore® for the development of a proof of concept based on artificial intelligence to improve safety in climbing with autobelay devices. The system allows the automatic and accurate detection of risk situations before starting a route.
- Researchers from the Centre for Image and Multimedia Technology of the UPC (CITM) and from the DiCode research group (Digital Culture and Creative Technologies Research Group) of the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya – BarcelonaTech (UPC) have worked on the project The Eyes of History, an initiative of the Catalan Agency for Cultural Heritage that offers an immersive view of Catalan cultural heritage. It is especially aimed at the first and second cycles of secondary education and was created to bring heritage into the classroom. Its goal is to bring the history and monuments of Catalonia closer in a vivid and innovative way, using tools such as virtual reality and new museographic narratives.
- City and Play is a social action project coordinated by researchers from the Centre for Image and Multimedia Technology (CITM) and the DiCode research group (Digital Culture and Creative Technologies Research Group) of the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya – BarcelonaTech (UPC), the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC) and the University of Barcelona (UB), and funded by Barcelona City Council. The aim of the project is to promote civic competences and reflection on the urban environment among adolescents through the creation of an open framework that uses methodologies based on play, co-creation and storytelling.
