First secondment at ISAMGEO, Italy

Hello everyone! I'm Jitendra Kumar Sharma from India, and I'm excited to share my journey with you. I started my academic path with a bachelor's degree in Aeronautical Engineering, followed by a master's in Mechanical Engineering. Alongside my studies, I gained valuable industrial experience in the Aerospace industry, working with AIRBUS in India for 2.5 years.

My journey took an international turn when I got the opportunity to work as a Research Assistant at the Institute of Fluid-flow Machinery, Polish Academy of Sciences in Poland. Later, I moved to the United Kingdom and continued my research journey as a Research Assistant at Swansea University.

Driven by my passion for research and industrial experience, I set my sights on pursuing a PhD. In October 2023, I got the opportunity to get a PhD at Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Belgium which is fully funded by Marie Skłodowska Curie Actions - Doctoral Network (HORIZON-MSCA-2021-DN-01-01). This prestigious scholarship not only provides financial support but also offers numerous opportunities for collaboration and networking. In this Doctoral Networks program, consists of various training events and secondments (Ph.D. student goes to another institution/company for 2 months to collaborate with ideas, research, culture, etc.). In my first academic year of the current PhD, I came to ISAMGEO in Gallarate, Italy.

My current Ph.D. topic is about filtering environmental effects (especially temperature) for ultrasonic-based monitoring using embedded piezoelectric transducers in the tunnel's repaired zone. See the below picture as an example of a repaired zone in a tunnel [1].

Currently at ULB we are performing time domain processing techniques to compensate for the environmental effects (currently we are considering temperature) for the monitoring of concrete structures using CWI (Coda Wave Interferometry). The current approach is however not sufficient to compensate for temperature effects, especially in high temperatures which may cause false-positive alarms.

In the secondment at ISAMGEO in Gallarate, Italy which mainly works in the Geoscience domain, I am planning to evaluate some techniques (mostly, but not limited to, in the frequency domain) for concrete monitoring that are used in the geosciences.

During this secondment at ISAMGEO, I am expected to:

• Work on a state-of-the-art review about frequency domain methods for compensating the environmental effects of concrete monitoring.
• Implement and test the frequency domain methods for tunnel data.
• Analyse and understand the data that will be provided by ISAMGEO.
• This data is prepared by measurements on industrial buildings as well as from the soil (accelerometers and geophones).
• Work with the local PhD candidate (DC06, Olga Nesterova) on CWI using passive seismic data.
• Use the methods or processing in Python.
• Our existing monitoring system is based on Matlab software.
• Since Python is open source, we can develop an updated monitoring system in Python.

This secondment presents an invaluable opportunity for both professional and personal growth. I am eager to learn and expand my expertise beyond the realms of my research.

Stay tuned for updates on my journey. I'll be sure to share my experiences and achievements following the conclusion of my secondment at ISAMGEO.

Thank you for joining me on this adventure!

Jitendra Kumar Sharma

jitendra.kumar.sharma@ulb.be

Reference

[1]. Dumoulin, Cédric, and Arnaud Deraemaeker. "All-season monitoring of concrete repair in an urban tunnel in Brussels using embedded ultrasonic transducers with emphasis on robustness to environmental variations." Journal of Civil Structural Health Monitoring 11.4 (2021): 879-895.