Professor Necati Catbas and three of his doctoral students received the 2024 Best Paper Award from the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) Journal of Bridge Engineering for their work on load rating and reliability of prestressed concrete bridges.
“It’s a major award. Sometimes, we all get this type of recognition, but there are multiple universities involved and multiple research group and in this case, it is also very good. However, this award is with my students only, so pure UCF work” Catbas says. “This is all us and I am very proud of it.”
Catbas’ article, written with his three former doctoral students Marwan Debees, Furkan Luleci and Chuan-Zhi Dong, focuses on structural health monitoring, which is Catbas’ area of expertise. The paper shows the effects of field-derived distribution factor and impact factor from tests by using computer vision and other technology on the bridges.
Catbas emphasizes the importance of bridges not just for the driver safety and economy, but because of the understanding that the bridge behavior helps with potential repairs and new designs in the future. Their work is helping further improve these infrastructures.
This paper took several years to complete, and it demonstrates the many technologies, including cameras and sensors, that were used to analyze the condition of bridges nationally. The research was supported by NASA, with underlying work funded by the National Science Foundation and National Academies IDEA Program. This project was proposed to do two things: to show the framework of all of these technologies and how they can be utilized for any type of infrastructure, and to demonstrate the use of these technologies.
“We looked at new technologies with sensors and with no physically attached sensors, but computer vision with remote sensing. We also have patents for these novel technologies. Being able to implement these and demonstrate it works means a lot” Catbas says. “For this paper to be recognized at this level is very gratifying.”
Catbas says that some of these technologies do have patents and in the future, he aims to patent more of the technologies created in his lab. The technology he used in this project was demonstrated and implemented on a number of different bridges around the world.
“While we had some iterations in the lab, things worked out very seamlessly in real life. We didn’t have to go back and forth, and redo things too many times,” Catbas says. “I think that was a good thing and it worked out really well.”
- Written by Sydney Ford