Engineers at the University of New Hampshire are outfitting the two-year-old Memorial Bridge, which links Portsmouth, New Hampshire, to Kittery, Maine, with sensors to monitor everything from its structural stability to traffic and local environmental conditions. The sensors will be powered by tidal energy through a turbine system installed at a bridge pier.

The project is being called a "living bridge," and it is designed to showcase the future of smart, sustainable, user-centered transportation infrastructure. Ultimately, a suite of 40 sensors will be installed to collect data on conditions such as bridge vibration, wind speed and ambient temperature and humidity.

Sensors on the bridge will continuously collect data on conditions such as traffic, stress, vibration, wind speed, temperature and humidity. Image credit: New Hampshire DOT. The sensors are also being used to calibrate a three-dimensional analytical structural finite element model of the bridge. The predicted structural response from the model will assess the measured structural response of the bridge as acceptable or not.

Instruments installed on the turbine deployment platform will measure the spatio-temporal structure of the turbulent inflow and modified wake flow downstream of the turbine. Resulting data will include turbine performance and loads for use in fluid-structure interaction models.

Environmental sensors will measure estuarine water quality, while wildlife deterrent sensors will discourage fish from becoming caught in the turbine. Hydrophones and video cameras will be used before and during turbine deployment to monitor environmental changes due to the turbine's presence.

[Related reading: A smart bridge replaces a 'dumb' one]