TITLE:
Structural Health Monitoring: Alarming System
AUTHORS:
Adel ElSafty, Ahmed Gamal, Patrick Kreidl, Gerald Merckel
KEYWORDS:
Monitoring; Wireless; Cellular; Data Processing
JOURNAL NAME:
Wireless Sensor Network,
Vol.5 No.5,
May
24,
2013
ABSTRACT: There is a huge investment in our infrastructure that is vital to
our social and economic life. However, the aging and deterioration of the
structures require implementing a damage detection system to monitor their
structural integrity. In this study, a new alarming system was developed as part of
a structural health monitoring system and installed in a scaled-down structure
models. The designed system incorporated microprocessors, wireless
communication, transducer, and cellular transmission that allow remote
monitoring. The developed system facilitates continuous monitoring process of
any part of structures and controlled remotely from any location. The system
was equipped with data processing subsystem that detects structural behavior
irregularity, defects, and potential failures. The system was tested using Linear
Variable Differential Transformer (LVDT) for deflections and using strain gages to
measure the developed axial and flexural strains in different structural
models. Filtering algorithm was used to filter graphs and the data gathered in
each loading stage was averaged and plotted to show the abrupt change in the
values. The filtering system helps the alarming system to have a clear
prediction of possible irregularities. The developed system provides the
desired features of low cost, low power, small size, flexibility and easy
implementation, remote accessing, early detection of problems, and simplified
representation of the results.