TITLE:
RSS Based Bridge Scour Measurement Using Underwater Acoustic Sensor Networks
AUTHORS:
Prabhat Dahal, Dongming Peng, Yaoqing (Lamar) Yang, Hamid Sharif
KEYWORDS:
Bridge Scour; Received Signal Strength; Acoustic Wave Propagation; Underwater Acoustic Sensor Networks
JOURNAL NAME:
Communications and Network,
Vol.5 No.3C,
October
9,
2013
ABSTRACT: Bridge Scour is one of the major causes of bridge
failures all around the world and there have been significant efforts for its detection
and measurement using different acoustic approaches. In this paper, we propose
and investigate an effective method to utilize Received Signal Strength (RSS)
for measuring scour depth where acoustic sensors are deployed. We also extend a
statistical testing to determine the difference in signal levels at the sensor
nodes prior to and after scour formation and subsequently determine the actual
depth of scour. Additionally, we make an attempt to evaluate underwater
distance and depth using signal strength perceived at the receiver which makes
it free from the requirement of accurate receiver-sender synchronization in
contrast to Time of Flight (ToF) or Time of Arrival (ToA) techniques. The scour
depths are eventually compared for the conditions when the bottom is composed
of a single or multiple layers. The simulation results clearly show that
different depths are calculated for the case of multilayered bottom (0.8 to 3.9
meters for instance) as compared to a constant depth of 2 meters for the case
of a single layered bottom.