Virginia Tech Partners with VTI Instruments to Advance Education and Research in Infrastructure Monitoring


Irvine, CA – Virginia Tech College of Engineering recently announced the completion of Goodwin Hall (formerly the "Signature Engineering Building") - Smart Infrastructure Laboratory. The Virginia Tech Smart Infrastructure Laboratory (VT-SIL) aims at advancing education and research in areas that utilize sensor information in an effort to improve the design, monitoring and daily operation of civil and mechanical infrastructure, as well as investigate how humans interact with the built environment.



Goodwin Hall is the most instrumented building for vibrations in the world with over 240 accelerometers distributed throughout the building. The facility will be extremely valuable in the improvement of research in fields including structural health monitoring, building dynamics, foot pattern tracking, behavioural science, and smart energy use. 



CMX09 Virginia Tech required partners in the development of the data acquisition systems for Goodwin Hall, and VTI Instruments' reputation and history as a flexible, precision DAQ provider allowed for a partnership in the development of this system to be forged.



"We required a data acquisition provider that was flexible and would work with us as a partner and not just a vendor, especially as this project evolves," said Dr. Pablo Tarazaga, Founder Co-Director of VT-SIL. "VTI and Virginia Tech were able to work side by side in the creation of a solution that would be open to expansion without sacrificing the fidelity of the instruments." 



The development of the continuous data collection system on open IVI driver standards, as well as the incorporation of COTS equipment protects Virginia Tech's capital investment and mitigates obsolescence, ensuring longevity of the DAQ system for the lifetime of the building.



By incorporating the VTI CMX09 PXIe chassis, the EMX-4250 PXIe DSA, and the EMX-2500 PXIe LXI Ethernet controller, Virginia Tech was able to create a 288 channel modular, scalable, DAQ solution distributed throughout the building on multiple floors.



VTI's incorporation of the IEEE-1588 Precision Time Protocol via Ethernet allowed easy synchronization with no additional time synchronization cabling required. With all channels synchronized, dynamic events can be tracked, analyzed, and phasing can be maintained for modal analysis.



"Working with Dr. Tarazaga and helping further the education of our future engineers brings great pleasure to us at VTI," said Tom Sarfi, VP of Product Management. "We see great benefit coming from this building, not just for education but also furthering our research in regards data acquisition and analysis."



To learn more about the Virginia Tech Smart Infrastructure Laboratory, please visit http://marketing.vtiinstruments.com/e/12672/vtsil/p25jj/535980063.



To learn more about VTI Instruments Precision Data Acquisition Solutions, please visit www.vtiinstruments.com.



About VTI Instruments



VTI Instruments delivers precision modular instrumentation and systems for electronic signal distribution, acquisition, and monitoring, used in the world's most demanding test applications. The company's products and systems are used to monitor and record data that characterizes the physical integrity and performance of aircraft, engines, and other large structures, as well as automate the functional testing of complex electronic systems.



VTI is recognized as an industry leader with a reputation of providing reliable data, first time, every time. A sustained focus on innovation and technology enables VTIs customers to optimize their capital investment through product longevity, while ensuring unmatched measurement integrity and data reliability.



VTI Instruments is a unit of AMETEK, Inc., a leading global manufacturer of electronic instruments and electromechanical devices.



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