CSI has been investigating how communities can use ground source heat pumps and other geothermal technologies to provide energy more sustainably. The University of California, Berkeley, is building a clean electrified heating and cooling plant utilizing shallow geothermal to cut down… Read More »UC Berkeley – Campus Geothermal Borehole Testing
The Soga Research Group/Center for Smart Infrastructure is working with EBMUD to develop a cutting-edge system for monitoring pipelines that cross active earthquake faults. Distributed fiber optic sensors were installed in 2022 along an approximately 200m alignment of two critical… Read More »EBMUD – Claremont Ave Pipeline Monitoring – Oakland, California
At UC Berkeley’s Richmond Field Station, our innovative smart pavement incorporates fiber optic sensing cables embedded within a 100-meter-long stretch of hot mix asphalt roadway. Extensive experiments were conducted to assess the capabilities of phase-coherent optical time domain reflectometry (φ-OTDR)… Read More »CSI – DFOS-embedded Smart Road
CSI participated in a full-scale field test of different base grouting technologies, using fiber optic sensing to measure strain and temperature development throughout the project. The project included the construction of 13 drilled shafts, base grouting of 12 of the… Read More »Caltrans – Base Grouted Pile Testing
USACE reconstructed some levee cutoff walls within the Sacramento River Area during the past two years. The levee cutoff wall is constructed by a mixture of cement, bentonite, and slag, which is a low permeability and high strength material. However,… Read More »USACE – Levee Monitoring – Sacramento, California
This study centers on experimental assessments of AWWA C900 DR14 iPVC pipes, subjecting them to bending forces. The primary objective was to determine the pipes’ capacity to maintain their full-service functionality following seismic events, thus bolstering seismic resilience. To explore… Read More »PPI – iPVC Pipe Testing
This study involved a series of pipeline experiments, encompassing tension tests, bi-axial tension tests, and 4-point bending tests, to investigate the failure mechanisms of an 8-inch TR-XTREME ductile iron pipe manufactured by US Pipe. These experiments were equipped with distributed… Read More »U.S. Pipe – Ductile Iron Pipe Testing
With a focus on large-scale testing capacity, this study delves into the challenges faced by buried pipelines, particularly segmented ones within water networks, when confronted with natural disasters such as earthquakes and landslides. The integrity of connections between pipe segments… Read More »Kubota – Ductile Iron Pipe Testing
Long-term settlement monitoring for Mission Rock, a 28-acre project site at San Francisco’s southern waterfront, aimed at transforming an existing parking lot to a mixed-use development comprising housing, commercial and park spaces for public. To monitor the settlement during the… Read More »Tishman Speyer – Long-term Settlement Monitoring – downtown San Francisco, California
The majority of electricity utilized by UC Berkeley, along with its entire steam supply for heating, is generated from a co-generation plant situated on campus, which, however, contributes to 80 % of campus CO2 emissions. Moreover, the aged energy delivery… Read More »DOE – Geothermal based Optimized Energy Systems (GOES)