Recently, the Guangdong Housing and Urban-Rural Development Labor Union Committee issued the Notice on Naming the Innovation Studio of Model Workers and Talented Craftsmen in the Housing and Urban-Rural Development System of Guangdong Province in 2022. Sun Xiaoli Innovation Studio under Guangzhou Municipal Engineering Testing Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of Guangzhou Institute of Building Science Group Co., Ltd., GMC won the name of “2022 Innovation Studio of Model Workers and Talented Craftsmen in the Housing and Urban-Rural Development System of Guangdong Province” for its outstanding innovation performance, excellent talent training, and remarkable social benefits.

Let’s learn more about this excellent innovation team and the great scientific research achievements of Guangzhou Municipal Construction Group Co., Ltd. (GMC).

Team

Established in July 2018, Sun Xiaoli Innovation Studio (hereinafter referred to as “the Studio”) is composed of 16 professor-level senior engineers, senior engineers, and other members with master’s and doctor’s degrees from geotechnical engineering, structural engineering, testing, and other disciplines. The Studio focuses on hot and difficult issues in engineering and has greatly contributed to the innovation and development of the civil engineering industry.

In recent years, the Studio has undertaken more than 50 scientific research projects of various kinds. Among the projects, four have been approved as provincial and municipal science and technology projects; 30 have passed the evaluation of S&T achievements, among which three are world-leading, 17 reach the world’s advanced level, and 10 are advanced in the country. The Studio has won three prizes of the Huaxia Construction Science and Technology Award and more than 30 science and technology awards of the Guangdong Society of Civil Engineering and Architecture and Guangdong Municipal Industry Association. It has obtained 79 intellectual property rights and has led or participated in the compilation of eight sets of local and group standards.

  ▲Sun Xiaoli, Head of Sun Xiaoli Innovation Studio (second from the left)

As the head of Sun Xiaoli Innovation Studio, Sun Xiaoli, a professor-level senior engineer, has long been committed to scientific research in geotechnical and road engineering. Sun has won numerous honorary titles such as “100 Outstanding Highway Engineers in China”, “The First Excellent Highway Engineers in Guangdong Province”, “Excellent Scientific and Technological Worker in Civil Engineering of Guangdong Province”, and “Outstanding Chief Engineer” granted by the Guangdong Municipal Industry Association. In 2019, Sun was awarded as the reserve talent of “Lingnan Yingjie Project” (Lingnan Project of Outstanding Talent) of Guangzhou.

Achievements

With a focus on the pain points of the construction engineering inspection industry and through the combination of new technologies such as intelligent perception and in-depth learning with traditional testing technologies, the Studio has made a series of international leading scientific research achievements in intelligent inspection of prefabricated building construction quality, intelligent welding of prefabricated tubular piles, and stress management of prefabricated integrated pipe galleries.

The Studio has made breakthroughs in sleeve grouting quality detection methods and proposed the grouting fullness checkout technology for prefabricated structure sleeves based on the principle of electrical testing. It has invented China’s first sleeve grouting fullness electrical checkout equipment, which boasts timely and accurate detection results and efficient on-site operations as well as low detection cost, which is only one-tenth of the cost required by similar technologies and realizes rapid and full detection of sleeve grouting and process control of bridge node construction quality.

  ▲The grouting fullness detection technology of prefabricated building sleeves based on electrical principle is successfully applied in the southern section of the connecting line from Dongxiaonan Road, Guangzhou to Guangzhou South Railway Station.

In order to meet the high joint welding requirements for prefabricated tubular piles, the Studio has invented an intelligent welding robot suitable for fully-prefabricated bridge precast pile foundations as well as the double-welding-robot synchronous welding and intelligent welding line recognition technology. The intelligent welding robot demonstrates great adaptability to the construction environment. The synchronous welding technology with double welding robots for one-meter-diameter tubular piles doubles the efficiency of manual welding, significantly reduces the labor intensity of workers, and effectively improves the welding quality.

  ▲The intelligent welding robot is successfully applied in the Shenzhen-Shanwei Western Expressway Reconstruction and Expansion Project

To solve the shortage of testing methods for the bearing capacity of the pile foundations of existing bridges, the Studio has developed a comprehensive testing technology for evaluating the integrity of existing bridge pile foundations and invented complete sets of testing equipment and analysis software, thus fixing technical problems in the rapid inspection of pile foundation “diseases” and bearing capacity evaluation of existing bridges. The research results of the projects have obtained national invention patents, won the second prize of the Huaxia Construction Science and Technology Award, and have been incorporated into China’s industry standards and the local standards of Guangdong Province.

  ▲Results of the research on key technologies of the safety technical status assessment of in-service bridge pile foundations win the second prize of the Huaxia Construction Science and Technology Award

To address deviations in results of conventional vibration test methods applied in the detection of cable structure systems in engineering and difficulty in installing vibration-wire-type monitoring sensors, the Studio has developed an ultra-thin wireless intelligent force sensor and monitoring system based on intelligent sensing. The thinnest part of the sensor is only 5.6 mm, which is 1/10 of that of the traditional vibration-wire-type sensor. Its built-in MCU intelligent circuit, which is able to transmit data wirelessly and also features high internal resistance and low power consumption, can be used for stress monitoring in multiple scenarios. The related technologies won the third prize of the Huaxia Construction Science and Technology Award.

  ▲ The ultra-thin wireless intelligent force sensor based on intelligent sensing is installed in the Shenzhen-Zhongshan Bridge

Leadership

Since its establishment, the Studio has achieved remarkable results in technical R&D and talent cultivation. It was named “Innovation Studio of Model Workers and Talented Craftsmen” by the Guangzhou Federation of Trade Unions, and its scientific research team was awarded the title of “Youth Civilization Award of Guangzhou”.

The Studio has nurtured a total of six senior engineers and five post-doctors and provided guidance for 12 graduate students who finally obtained master’s degrees from the South China University of Technology, Guangdong University of Technology, Shantou University, East China Jiaotong University, and other colleges and universities, making great contributions to the cultivation of talent for geotechnical and road, bridge and tunnel engineering. Also, it assisted the Guangdong Municipal Industry Association in organizing technical training classes on technologies related to foundation piles of architectural foundation engineering, municipal roads, and structural entity inspection and trained more than 800 professional and technical talents for the engineering inspection industry.

A number of technologies developed by the Studio have been promoted and applied in dozens of major projects such as the Luoxi Bridge Expansion Project, Shenzhen-Zhongshan Bridge, Baiyun Shatinggang New Community, Nanda Avenue, Tianhe Smart City Underground Comprehensive Pipe Gallery, and Shenzhen-Shanwei Western Expressway Reconstruction and Expansion Project, generating an accumulated output value of exceeding RMB 24 million and saving basic inspection and construction costs of over RMB 34 million.

Source: Lin Xiaoping, Guangzhou Institute of Building Science Group Co., Ltd.

Edited and released by Lu Chongyou and Long Kun, Party-Masses Work Department of the Group

Released by Zhang Xiaoying, Group Office