Publications by James-Alexandre Goulet

Measurement system design for civil infrastructure using expected utility

Ian Smith, Romain Pasquier, James-Alexandre Goulet

For system identification, most sensor-placement strategies are based on the minimization of the model-parameter uncertainty. However, reducing the uncertainty in remaining-life prognosis of structures is often more relevant. This paper proposes an optimiz ...

Elsevier2017

Measurement, Data Interpretation, and Uncertainty Propagation for Fatigue Assessments of Structures

Ian Smith, Claire Acevedo, Alain Nussbaumer, Romain Pasquier, James-Alexandre Goulet, Luca D'Angelo

Real behavior of existing structures is usually associated with large uncertainty that is often covered by the use of conservative models and code practices for the evaluation of remaining fatigue lives. In order to make better decisions related to retrofi ...

American Society of Civil Engineers2016

Improving Fatigue Evaluations of Structures Using In-Service Behavior Measurement Data

Ian Smith, Claire Acevedo, Romain Pasquier, James-Alexandre Goulet

Conservative models and code practices are usually employed for fatigue-damage predictions of existing structures. Direct in-service behavior measurements are able to provide more accurate estimations of remaining-fatigue-life predictions. However, these e ...

American Society of Civil Engineers2014

Quantifying the Effects of Modeling Simplifications for Structural Identification of Bridges

Ian Smith, Marie Texier, Clotaire Michel, James-Alexandre Goulet

Several long-span, prestressed, segmental box girder bridges were built in the early 1980s and many of them are affected by long-term residual deformations. Although some models have been proposed to describe their structural behavior, several uncertaintie ...

American Society of Civil Engineers2014

Hybrid probabilities and error-domain structural identification using ambient vibration monitoring

Ian Smith, Clotaire Michel, James-Alexandre Goulet

For the assessment of structural behaviour, many approaches are available to compare model predictions with measurements. However, few approaches include uncertainties along with dependencies associated with models and observations. In this paper, an error ...

Elsevier2013

Performance-Driven Measurement System Design for Structural Identification

Ian Smith, James-Alexandre Goulet

Much progress has been achieved in the research field of structural identification, which is attributable to a better understanding of uncertainties, improvement in sensor technologies, and cost reductions. However, data interpretation remains a bottleneck ...

American Society of Civil Engineers2013

Model falsification diagnosis and sensor placement for leak detection in pressurized pipe networks

Ian Smith, James-Alexandre Goulet, Sylvain Coutu

Pressurized pipe networks used for fresh-water distribution can take advantage of recent advances in sensing technologies and data-interpretation to evaluate their performance. In this paper, a leak-detection and a sensor placement methodology are proposed ...

Elsevier2013

Structural identification with systematic errors and unknown uncertainty dependencies

Ian Smith, James-Alexandre Goulet

When system identification methodologies are used to interpret measurement data taken from structures, uncertainty dependencies are in many cases unknown due to model simplifications and omissions. This paper presents how error-domain model falsification r ...

Elsevier2013

Predicting the Usefulness of Monitoring for Identifying the Behavior of Structures

Ian Smith, James-Alexandre Goulet

Structures can be better understood when measurement data are used to improve the modeling of structural behavior. Our capacity to interpret data depends on aspects such as the choice of model class, model parameters (and their range of possible values), a ...

American Society of Civil Engineers2013

Model-Based Data Interpretation and Diagnosis Robustness

Ian Smith, Romain Pasquier, James-Alexandre Goulet

Model-based data-interpretation techniques are widely used to identify the behavior of structures. These techniques exploit information provided by in-situ measurements to make diagnosis related to structural performance. In the context of model-based infr ...

Taylor & Francis Group2013

Structural identification methods for full-scale bridges

Ian Smith, James-Alexandre Goulet, Irwanda Laory

Results of two doctoral theses, one using a model-based approach and the other using model-free methods, are summarized. Both included case studies of full-scale bridges. While model-based approaches are appropriate for individual infrastructure-management ...

2013

Reducing Uncertainties Regarding Remaining Lives of Structures Using Computer-aided Data Interpretation

Ian Smith, Romain Pasquier, James-Alexandre Goulet

The growing importance of economic and environmental issues associated with the replacement of transportation infrastructure creates a demand for new techniques that are able to predict accurately the behaviour of existing structures. While monitoring stru ...

2012

Probabilistic Model Falsification for Infrastructure Diagnosis

James-Alexandre Goulet

Most infrastructure in the western world was built in the second half of the 20th century. Transportation structures, water distribution networks and energy production systems are now aging and this leads to safety and serviceability issues. In situations ...

EPFL2012

Uncertainty corrrelation in structural performance assessment

Ian Smith, James-Alexandre Goulet

2011

Extended Uniform Distribution Accounting for Uncertainty of Uncertainty

Ian Smith, James-Alexandre Goulet

Increasingly, uncertainties are explicitly considered for important engineering tasks. Often, little case-specific information is available for characterizing these uncertainties. Uniform distributions are an easy way to describe errors in absence of more ...

ASCE2011

Preventing over-instrumentation during the design of a monitoring system for static load tests

Ian Smith, James-Alexandre Goulet

2011

Overcoming the limitations of traditional model-updating approaches

Ian Smith, James-Alexandre Goulet

Model updating is useful for improving structural performance assessments. This paper examines an important assumption of traditional model-updating approaches. This assumption requires the error independence between points where predictions and measuremen ...

ASCE2011

Multimodel Structural Performance Monitoring

Ian Smith, James-Alexandre Goulet

Measurements from load tests may lead to numerical models that better reflect structural behavior. This kind of system identification is not straightforward due to important uncertainties in measurement and models. Moreover, since system identification is ...

2010

Estimation of modelling errors in structural system identification

Ian Smith, James-Alexandre Goulet

This paper presents a method for measurement-system design through criteria related to model based structural identification. Using a multi-model approach and results from previous research carried out at EPFL, an improved algorithm is proposed. The algori ...

2009

Structural identification to improve bridge management

Ian Smith, James-Alexandre Goulet

This paper presents results from static loads tests performed on the new Langensand Bridge built in Switzerland. A systematic study of over 1000 models subjected to three load cases identifies a set of 11 candidate models through static measurements. Predi ...

International Association for Bridge and Structural Engineering2009