The Department of Homeland Security Science and Technology (S&T) Directorate is about a year into a five-year effort to find solutions to help extend the life of dams in the face of natural disasters and climate change. Some of the solutions involve using fiber-reinforced polymers (FRPs) to provide a structural boost and building in sensors for effective surveying and monitoring.

FRPs are composite materials consisting of two or more different constituent materials – carbon or glass fibers imbedded in an epoxy matrix. This makes the material tough, lightweight, and very strong, with some interesting structural properties. S&T’s research into FRPs focuses on how they can help reinforce existing concrete dams to improve their performance and extend service life. In terms of its research into sensors, S&T is monitoring the condition of dams and levees using unmanned aerial systems (UAS) and deep learning. After making multiple photos with a UAS, engineers go through thousands of images to catalog and analyze the deterioration and plan repairs. Experts will then train artificial neural networks to differentiate between images with and without various types of deterioration. Once trained, a computer model will be able to automatically recognize deterioration and pinpoint its location on the dam. But the monitoring will be challenging if the concrete is covered with FRP fabric, so the fabric needs to be self-sensing. To achieve this, the researchers plan to test two possible sensors in the FRP fabric—the carbon fibers’ natural electrical conductivity as sensors or adding optical fibers as sensors. The sensors will collect baseline data of FRP performance or of what is happening underneath whenever the FRP material strains from concrete deterioration. Read more at DHS S&T.