The aim of this work was to develop and validate an experimental methodology suitable for analysing on-site the behaviour of fibre-reinforced wooden structures. The proposed measurement method is based on the application of fibre Bragg grating (FBG) strain sensors. An analysis of adhesive behaviour was performed preliminarily, which provided indications for choosing the type of adhesive and for the fibre bonding length in accordance with the volume of measurement. The first series of tests was carried out on wood samples to verify the coupling between the measuring sensor and the wood support when the latter is subject to mechanical stresses. The second investigation was done on site to test the behaviour of a historical wood floor before and after reinforcement by means of a series of tests performed using optical fibres with the Bragg grating. The optical fibre system measurements were compared to those obtained using a laser vibrometer, a measurement system of proven stability and precision. The comparison makes it possible to confirm the validity of the results and the reliability of the system for the monitoring of historic wooden structures.

Additive manufacturing (AM) is gaining relevance for the freedom it gives to designers in experimenting topologically optimized components, especially those having lattice morphology. Indeed, these are of great interest in various application fields (automotive, biomedical, etc.) because, in addition to a significant mass reduction, lattice topology (micro-scale) can be tuned to provide the final product (macro-scale) with the specific properties it needs to exhibit. However, additive manufactured lattice structures are still to be fully investigated, given the mismatch between the designed and the manufactured final product. This paper presents some preliminary results from a multi-instrument approach, grounding on non-contact measurement techniques, to characterize lattice and trabecular structures in terms of dimensional accuracy, surface morphology, stress-strain distribution and modal behavior.

The use of accelerometer based measurement techniques for evaluating bridge forced vibrations or to perform bridge modal analysis is well established. It is well known to all researchers who have experience in vibration measurements that values of acceleration amplitude can be very low at low frequencies and that a limitation to the use of accelerometer can be due to the threshold parameter of this kind of transducer. Under this conditions the measurement of displacement seems more appropriate. On the other hand laser vibrometer systems detect relative displacements as opposed to the absolute measures of accelerometers. Vibrations have been measured simultaneously by a typical accelerometer for civil structures and by a laser vibrometer equipped with a fringe counter board in terms of velocity and displacements. The accelerations calculated from the laser vibrometer signals and the one directly measured by the accelerometer has been compared.

This paper deals with a particular magnetic nondestructive technique applied to the control of the position of the steel blades in rotating parts of turbines and engines. The working principle is based on a bridge of four identical magneto-resistive sensors. One sensor is placed near the blades, and the change in magnetic field produced by a permanent magnet and deviated by the change in position of the blade is detected by the sensor bridge. The position of the sensor is indicated, via dedicated FEM simulations, in order to have high sensitivity to the position change and high output signal. The accuracy and effectiveness of the proposed method are shown by experimental tests carried out in our laboratories. In particular, the tests indicate that the proposed magnetic nondestructive technique can be used in an almost large velocity range, and for quite different values of blade tip. The method seems also promising for the detection of blade vibrations.