When structures within the ground move and deform they generate noise some of which propagates as stress waves, Acoustic Emissions (AE). This project shall develop techniques to use these AE to listen for deterioration of critical infrastructure assets to provide early warning of deterioration and facilitate targeted maintenance and renewal. The project has vast potential applications as the UK's aging geotechnical assets comprise >10,000km of rail track; >10,000km of pipelines used to convey petroleum products; >36,000km of potable water trunk mains pipeline; >1000 offshore wind turbines; 100s km of tunnels; and 100,000s of bridges, earth retaining structures and foundations. Deterioration at any location can have catastrophic consequences for entire networks.

This project will address the urgent need for affordable sensing technologies that can provide continuous, remote, real-time information with high spatial and temporal resolution on geotechnical assets. This will be realised through laboratory-scale element tests to develop understanding of the fundamental AE behaviour of the ground, and large/full-scale experiments on geotechnical assets (e.g. rail tracks, buried pipes, etc) to subject them to controlled deterioration with known boundary conditions.