It’s Alive! Creating innovative “living” bridge

A tidal turbine installed on the platform is serving as a teaching tool to test the viability of a renewable energy source different from the more traditional solar panels. Designed and implemented by engineers and graduate students, researchers believe it is the first of its kind to be located under a bridge. Because the Piscataqua River is one of the fastest navigable waterways on the Eastern seaboard, it made sense to try and explore the use of the river’s tidal waters.

“What is exciting about this is that tidal energy can be very predictable,” said Martin Wosnik, associate professor of mechanical engineering. “Unlike solar panels, which can be unreliable due to cloudy days or bad weather, tidal energy is more stable because we can predict the tides well into the future.”

The data that is collected from the turbine and the sensors can be shared across UNH, with other colleagues and researchers and even within the community. While the bridge sensors will help engineers and bridge designers test structural response for future bridges, other information available on the project’s websiteis already being used as teaching tools for K-12 educators to engage students in citizen science projects to better understand the role of watersheds. There is also a phone app in development that will not only let users learn about the bridge but about the surrounding neighborhoods as well.

“This has been an amazing opportunity to shine a light on the larger role of infrastructure and how it can engage the community,” said Bell. “Our goal was to think about how all of these things come together to ensure that we are learning from the bridge, educating the public and inspiring students, not just for the next bridge build but for the next generation.”

The project is a collaborative effort led by UNH with the New Hampshire Department of Transportation, the National Science Foundation, and the U.S. Department of Energy.

Other industry partners include, MacArtney Underwater Technology Group, Inc. (Houston, Texas), Lite Enterprises, Inc. (Nashua, N.H.), N.H. Fish & Game, N.H. Port Authority, N.H. Coastal Program, City of Portsmouth, Sustainable Portsmouth, Maine Department of Transportation, U.S. Coast Guard, Archer/Western (Canton, Mass.), Canam Bridge (Claremont, NH), HNTB (New York, NY), UNH Tech Camp, UNH Infrastructure and Climate Network, and the UNH Leitzel Center for Mathematics, Science and Engineering Education.

The University of New Hampshire inspires innovation and transforms lives in our state, nation and world. More than 16,000 students from all 50 states and 71 countries engage with an award-winning faculty in top-ranked programs in business, engineering, law, health and human services, liberal arts and the sciences across more than 200 programs of study. As one of the nation’s highest-performing research universities, UNH partners with NASA, NOAA, NSF and NIH, and receives more than $110 million in competitive external funding every year to further explore and define the frontiers of land, sea and space.