Technology for bridges: Navy interested,to make warships stronger

Part of this warship will be fabricated with a Fibre Reinforced Polymer,which will make it lighter and tougher; it will be easier to maintain. The Navy structure will have an additional advantage-it will be a smart structure,which will be able to communicate if it has developed a fault. Scientists will inject sensors into the FRP structure,which will be hooked up to a computer and the data will be decoded by scientists who will know if the structure develops deficiencies.

“The Indian Navy ships are exposed to harsh conditions during operations; they are interested in strain monitoring structures for their ships,” said Joshi. “The challenge is to use the sensor inputs to isolate the damaged location of the structure. We have developed that algorithm,” he added. R&D scientists say they could graduate to making different parts of the ships like sonar dome enclosures or even ship hulls using FRP composites,which could replace heavier metals.

The sensors could also be made wireless and send information to a command center located elsewhere,scientists said. Joshi agreed that this kind of smart technology would be of immense use for civilian purposes as well. “There are over 150,000 railway bridges in the country which need repairs. They could be rehabilitated using FRPs and then refurbished with sensors to monitor their own health,” Joshi said. Normally,manual inspection of these bridges to find cracks would consume a lot of time and manpower. Initially,this DRDO project was aimed at attracting the attention of the Indian Army. The team here has already constructed a prototype of a 5 metre “smart bridge” for military purposes,which is also lodged with sensors. The bridge is made out of a carbon-fibre material and is 30 per cent lighter than aluminum bridges at about the same cost. “We are yet to formally present the smart bridge to the military as several tests needs to be conducted,” a scientist said. The DRDO is also looking at private partners to manufacture the bridge on a mass scale.