Detecting Falling Ice from Bridges Using Remote Sensing

Dexu Cai investigated automated detection of ice shedding from civil structures using non-contact sensing, with bridge cables as the primary engineering focus. Falling ice can endanger road users and disrupt bridge operation, while timely detection could support warning, protective measures, and operational decisions. Because fragments may be small, visible only briefly, and difficult to distinguish, he developed event-oriented methods using red–green–blue (RGB), thermal, and light detection and ranging (LiDAR) sensing, combining temporal continuity and trajectory-level reasoning. He also contributed to climatic wind-tunnel experiments in which all three modalities observed the same icing and shedding processes. The research shows that these modalities provide different and potentially complementary information. These findings provide a basis for more reliable monitoring and for selecting sensing approaches according to practical needs.

The PhD study was completed at Department of Civil and Architectural Engineering, Faculty of Technical Sciences, Aarhus University.

This summary was prepared by the PhD student.

Time: Wednesday, 2 December 2026 at 13:00 
Place: Navitas, Room 03.058, Inge Lehmanns Gade 10, 8000 Aarhus
Title of PhD thesis: Remote Sensing Approaches for Monitoring Ice Shedding on Civil Structures
Contact information: Dexu Cai, e-mail: dexu.cai@cae.au.dk, tel.: +45 81909140
Members of the assessment committee:
Associate Professor Evangelos Katsanos, DTU Construct, Technical University of Denmark (DTU), Denmark
Professor Giuseppe Carlo Marano, Department of Structural, Geotechnical and Building Engineering, Politecnico di Torino, Italy
Associate Professor Andrea Franza (chair), Department of Civil and Architectural Engineering, Aarhus University, Denmark
Main supervisor: Professor Christos T. Georgakis, Department of Civil and Architectural Engineering, Aarhus University, Denmark
Co-supervisor: Associate Professor Cristoforo Demartino, Department of Architecture, Roma Tre University, Italy
Language: The PhD dissertation will be defended in English

The defence is public.
The PhD thesis is available for reading at the Graduate School of Technical Sciences/GSTS, Ny Munkegade 120, building 1521, 8000 Aarhus C.