Structural Health Monitoring using Wireless Sensor Networks

ABSTRACT: Structural health monitoring in civil engineering is an opportunity to support structural reliability and safety. Recent advancement in sensing and wireless communication technology may help to reduce the involved expenses. The idea of tiny smart sensors working together on a common objective to enhance structural safety and reliability of buildings is an inspiring one. The proposed fields to integrate this technology are as various as scientific topics. But especially in guaranteeing a sustainable and reliable traffic infrastructure the smart - wireless communicating sensors appear to be very applicable. The data quality and smart algorithm capability of the sensors needs to be evaluated to develop new trustworthy applications and open implementation strategies in a larger scale. In this paper the application as a structural health monitoring system will be well investigated with real time measurements, implementations and comparison with a traditional wired SHM system. For this purpose wireless sensor test equipment is installed on a bridge already equipped with sensors and the results are compared. Different communication strategies based on the 2400 MHz ZigBee standard are evaluated to test their usefulness and energy efficiency for various tasks.