Joseph Vignola and John Judge

 

A large-scale survey (~700 m2) of frescos and wall paintings was undertaken in the U.S. Capitol Building in Washington, D.C. to identify regions that may need structural repair due to detachment, delamination, or other defects.   The survey encompassed eight pre-selected spaces including: Brumidi’s first work at the Capitol building in the House Appropriations Committee room; the Parliamentarian’s office; the House Speaker’s office; the Senate Reception room; the President’s Room; and three areas of the Brumidi Corridors.  Roughly 60% of the area surveyed was domed or vaulted ceilings, the rest being walls.  Approximately 250 scans were done ranging in size from 1 to 4 m2.  The typical mesh density was 400 scan points per square meter.  A common approach for post-processing time series called proper orthogonal decomposition, or POD, was used to extract the essential features of the time series.  We present a POD analysis for one of these panels pinpointing regions that have experienced severe substructural degradation.

 

 

 

Joseph F. Vignola pursued his higher education at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta where he obtained his Ph.D. in 1991.  From 1992 to 2006, Dr. Vignola conducted research in structural acoustics studying the dynamics of micro- and nano-structures at the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington DC.  A major area of interest has been fluid and non-fluid damping mechanisms in MEMS. In September 2006, Dr. Vignola joined the faculty of the Mechanical Engineering department of The Catholic University of America in Washington DC.

 

 

John A. Judge received his Ph.D. in 2002 from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, after which he spent two years as a postdoctoral research fellow in the Physical Acoustics branch at the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington DC.  Dr. Judge joined the faculty of the Mechanical Engineering Department of the Catholic University of America in Fall 2004.  His research interests include structural acoustics of near-periodic systems and acoustics-based detection of faults, damage, and concealed objects.