DYNAMIC MONITORING OF STRUCTURES USING WIRELESS SENSOR NETWORKS

Author* : RAFAEL AGUILAR

University of Minho Supervisor: Paulo B. Lourenço, Co-Supervisor: Luís F. Ramos Institute for Sustainability and
School of Engineering Innovation in Structural Engineering
Department of Civil Engineering
* raguilar@civil.uminho.pt

Outline of Research Operational Modal Analysis using Commercial off-the- Operational Modal Analysis using the new Prototype of
shelf Wireless Platforms Wireless Platform
Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) represents the present and future
of the civil engineering since, until few years ago, structural diagnosis In the present thesis, with a multidisciplinary work including electronic
works had been performed with few resources regarding to and communication engineers, a new prototype system has been
experimental techniques. In the field of monitoring sensors, the especially developed for fulfilling the demanding requirements of the
progress of new technologies based on wireless communications and dynamic monitoring of civil engineering structures. As the following
Micro-Electro-Mechanical-Systems (MEMS) are of high interest for figures show, outstanding results were obtained in the validation tests.
replacing the handle difficult wired based sensors. This work aims at
exploring the use of Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) for performing
Operational Modal Analysis (OMA) of existent structures.
To clarify the contribution of the present work, the definition of the
SHM in terms of the division of the statistical pattern recognition
paradigm is used. According to this, the SHM process is a sequence
of four steps which are summarized in the following figure. The Measurement sensors Commercial Products 0 20cm

present work fits in the 2nd stage of the proposed division. Low Noise High Noise
The initial tests were meant to observe the performance of Environment Environment
commercial off-the shelf WSN solutions (MICA2 platform + MTS400 (+X)

1st 2nd 3rd 4th sensor board). With this purpose, the accuracy of the time series
Operational Feature Statistical Model recordings and the resultant frequency domain spectrums of these (+X)

Evaluation Data Acquisition Extraction Development for platforms were evaluated. 

New MEMS 
(Measurement (Sensors and (Extract Feature accelerometer
and SHM DAQ information from Discrimination Wired based


considerations) equipments) the measurements) (Identify damage accelerometer

using the collected

information)

Why Study Alternatives for Monitoring Sensors? 

The few experiences reported in the literature regarding to the use of

dynamic monitoring systems in existent structures have evidenced Low Noise Environment High Noise Environment
serious difficulties for applying conventional equipments and
techniques. These difficulties can be summarized as: Acceleration [mg] Acceleration [mg] 1st Mode Shape 2nd Mode Shape 3rd Mode Shape
60 400
a) architectonical limitations for the deployment of wired based
30 200
monitoring systems;
b) elevated costs of the monitoring equipments due to the necessity of 0 0

high sensitive transducers required for measuring the low amplitude -30 Commercial WSN Platform
-200 Commercial WSN Platform
Original Configuration

New Prototype of WSN

Original Configuration

MEMS Type A
Original Configuration

MEMS Type A

vibrations of these thick walls’ buildings. -60

Conventional Wired Based System
-400
Conventional Wired Based System Conventional System Conv. System Conv. System

0 1 2 3 4 5 5 6 7 8 9 10         

Time [s] Time [s]

        
P11 P10 P9 P8 P7

Future Work
P30 P22 P23 P24 P25 P26 P27

P21 P20 P19

P16 P17

P1
P18
 Improvement of the capabilities of the developed prototype of
P29 P15 P14 P13 P12 P28
WSN.
P2 P3 P4 P5 P6
 Consider the incorporation of static monitoring sensors.
 Take advantage of the remote processing capabilities of the motes.
 Consider the problems related to the energy consumption and
alternative supply sources.
Engenharia para a Qualidade de Vida: CIDADE – Semana da Escola de Engenharia -11 a 16 de Outubro de 2010