Harsh Gandhi
University of Massachusetts Lowell
Degrees:
B.Sc. Civil Engineering – Chandigarh University – 2017
M.Sc. Structural Engineering – University of Massachusetts Lowell – 2019
Ph.D. Structural Engineering – University of Massachusetts Lowell – In Progress
Preferred Career after Graduation:
Academia or Industrial
Broad research Area:
Structural Health Monitoring of infrastructures using radar imaging and optical fiber
Specific Research Area:
ACT, Radar imaging, SHM with strain gauges, and optical fiber
Other Interests & Activities: Member of SPIE
Student Bio: Harsh Gandhi hails from India. He is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Structural Engineering. His area of interest in structural engineering is health monitoring of structures and analysis. It has always been his dream to contribute towards civil engineering profession and the society. Harsh recently joined TIDC project 3.7 under the advisement of Professor Susan Faraji.
Thesis title: Structural Health Monitoring of Pipe Specimens using Strain Gauges and BOTDR
Thesis Summary: Today, structural health monitoring (SHM) is one of the main approaches civil engineers use in order to learn about the health/damage condition of a civil infrastructure system. In the case of pipeline structures, SHM can be used to prevent pipeline failures that can cause catastrophic fatal and economic losses to the society. SHM of pipelines using contact sensors such as strain gauges and fiber optic sensors represents one promising solution to this problem.
This study is an SHM application of strain gauges and BOTDR (Brillouin optical time
domain reflectometer) for pipe and pipeline structures. Strain gauges can measure discrete, local, surface strain, while BOTDR can measure distributed, global, surface strain over a long distance. In this study, instrumentation of BOTDR was carried out by integrating an optical fiber with a fabric substrate to form a sensing textile prototype. Two HDPE (high density polyethylene) laboratory pipe specimens were prepared with one of them being artificially damaged by the introduction of a surface notch. These two HDPE pipes were first instrumented by sensing textile at their bottom side and then loaded by gravity and under four-point bending. Strain gauge measurements were used as an incumbent technology for comparison and validation. From this study, we have found that both strain gauges and BOTDR can detect the presence of a surface notch by using surface longitudinal strains. Surface longitudinal strains can also be used for estimating the loading level under four-point bending.
Presentation
Poster
