Design and Implementation of Scalable Wireless Sensor Network for Structural Monitoring

Abstract

An integrated hardware and software system for a scalable wireless sensor network ͑WSN͒ is designed and developed for structural health monitoring. An accelerometer sensor node is designed, developed, and calibrated to meet the requirements for structural vibration monitoring and modal identification. The nodes have four channels of accelerometers in two directions and a microcontroller for processing and wireless communication in a multihop network. Software components have been implemented within the TinyOS operating system to provide a flexible software platform and scalable performance for structural health monitoring applications. These components include a protocol for reliable command dissemination through the network and data collection, and improvements to software components for data pipelining, jitter control, and high-frequency sampling. The prototype WSN was deployed on a long-span bridge with 64 nodes. The data acquired from the testbed were used to examine the scalability of the network and the data quality. Robust and scalable performance was demonstrated even with a large number of hops required for communication. The results showed that the WSN provides spatially dense and accurate ambient vibration data for identifying vibration modes of a bridge.

Operational deformations in long-span bridges

“…In the form of accelerations recorded during modal testing (Ren et al 2004;Kim et al 2007;Pakzad et al 2008;Brownjohn et al 2010) they provide a direct view of the stiffness and mass properties and their distributions.…”

Prototype WSN Platform for Performing Dynamic Monitoring of Civil Engineering Structures

“…Afterwards, more case studies related with bridges were considered. These are the experiences in the Tokyo Rainbow Bridge in Japan [2], again the Alamosa Canyon Bridge in USA [15], a pedestrian bridge in the University of California-Irvine in USA [7], the Geumdang Bridge in Korea [16], the Gi-Lu cable-stayed bridge in Taiwan [25] and the Golden Gate Bridge in USA [18]. However, the only task reported in the literature related to large buildings is the dynamic monitoring of the 79 stories Di Wang Tower, located in Guangdong, China [17].…”

An Iterative Modal Identification Algorithm for Structural Health Monitoring Using Wireless Sensor Networks

“…In the new generation of SHM systems, attention is turned to the scalability of the sensing network (Liu et al 2003, Swartz et al 2005, Pakzad et al 2008. The hardware components for these scalable networks can be achieved by utilizing wireless sensor networks (WSNs).…”