USING SENSORS TO PREDICT BREAKING GLASS
Ever been walking down the street in a major city and suddenly get the eerie feeling that something is not quite right above you? Some of the buildings around you will be designed with lots of glass. Huge plates of the stuff. What might happen if that glass shattered and started falling all over you? This happens more often than you might think. And with large glass façades becoming part of modern building design, it's becoming even more of a concern to architects, builders and engineers .
Researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute want to help by using sensors to sound the alarm before the glass is already breaking and falling. Four sensors are situated on the edge of the pane at a distance of one meter from each other. One sensor produces an ultrasound wave that is registered by the others. If the signal remains constant, the pane is not defective. If it changes, this indicates a fissure, which most often emanates from the edge of the pane and is initially invisible. It is only as time goes by that it gets larger due to various factors, like fluctuations in temperature. The information is relayed to the building control systems and an alarm goes off.
The modules are also equipped to with light and temperature sensors that can instruct the building control system to lower shades to prevent the building from getting too hot.
(Adapted from: http: / /news.discovery.com)
According to the text, in what way has the modern building design worried architects, builders and engineers?
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