The river is part of a complex system that can be a precious energy source, but it also has to be continuously checked. Flumen is a project for hydro geological risk monitoring along the two kilometers of the Esino River close to Loccioni headquarters. Thanks to a properly designed monitoring system, Flumen allows to get the natural morphological development of the river, anticipatingits behavior and reducing risks. Core of Flumen is Bless+, the pier scour monitoring system: Bless+ is able to real time process the data related to the stability of the bridges for prompt decision making about safety and maintenance.

Bless+Bridge pier scour risk monitoring system

STRUCTURAL HEALTH MONITORING

400 direct employees

45% with University degree

34 years average age

70 Millions Euro (FY 2014)

Installations in more than 40 countries in the world

7% of the personnel cost investedin education

5% of the sales turnover invested in research

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Loccioni Research tells a story about passion and future, about the commitment to improve the quality of our lives and of the world we’re living in.Loccioni Research is an open laboratoryfor students and young researchers, for costomers and suppliers, for those who want to be on the frontieres of innovation, to gain competitiveness, to collect challenges, to transform data into value. Science, technology, imagination, courage are the tools to design a possible, human based, sustainable future.

Hydraulic monitoring

One of the main causes of bridge failures is the local scour around bridge piers by river floods. An example is the Scisciano Bridge (Maiolati Spontini, AN): in the 90s this bridge partially collapsed during a flood of the river Esino precisely for pier scouring problems.

The system Bless+ Bridge pier scour risk monitoring system

Bless+ system comes from the implementation and systems engineering of Bless patent (Bed Level Seeking System) of Polytechnic of Milan. The close collaboration between University and Loccioni Group, has provided an answer to the problem of pier scour monitoring for bridges. Composed by an array of Fiber Bragg grating (FBG), Bless+ proceeds as an array of temperature sensors. The instrument, in addition to detect the difference of environmental temperature between the water and saturated soils is capable, thanks to a heating circuit, to measure:

> the different thermal exchange between the two environments of measurement> conduction for saturated soils> convection for water current

The Bless+ monitoring system on the Scisciano Bridge

Features and benefits

Bless+ è stato sviluppato in collaborazione con il Politecnico di Milano che detiene il brevetto di Bless.

Bless+ is based on FBG optical technology and with respect to other measurement systems it is less influence by environmental conditions (i.e. solid transport during floods). The measurment system is directly in contact with the environmentsof measurement and it allows to determine the liquid-solid interface (river bed). Bless+ is particularly indicated to monitor relevant problems with respect to hydro geological risk management and it allows correlating these data with existing health monitoring systems. The system enables to give an alert during emergency events and to share data with control centers of Civil Protection. Finally, thanks to the possibility to understand in real-time the stability conditions of the bridge, Bless+ allows to take prompt decisions supportingthe collaboration between administrations, public institutions and private enterprises.

> Measuring directly in contact > Flexibility and reliability > Re-usability: no maintenance after each flood

> Automatic risk evalutation > Sms alert

Bless+ and Hydrometer data in myleaf web platform

Schema 3D

Unfortunately, models for accurate and robust predictions of the scour levels are not available. Bridge builders overcame this lack by using very large safety factors.

Power Supply Pc Illuminator GSM/3G cumunication Webserver/email/sms (automatic for allert)

FBG array fixed to rigid support