Internet of Things Framework for Structural Health Monitoring in Nigeria

Abstract

Internet of Things (IoT) is a paradigm that has been explored in various domains, as it facilitates the automation of many tedious processes with more efficiency and robustness. This technology can be applied to effectively mitigate the rising cases of building collapse in Nigeria. Traditional means of monitoring civil structures and determining their health seems inadequate, expensive and out of reach to many, hence a novel means of Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) which IoT provides. IoT facilitates the monitoring and measurement of several structural parameters with a high degree of precision through sensors while enabling these 'things' to communicate effectively through the designed protocol. It has proved to be a cost-effective alternative to traditional SHM while providing the flexibility of alerting users when there is any damage to the structure. In this paper, an IoT platform for structural integrity evaluation and monitoring in civil buildings was developed using piezoelectric transducers (PZT), some microcontrollers, and a SIM800L. These PZTs were deployed at determined nodes to read data continually while some digital signal processing techniques were used to manipulate these data towards determining the health of the structure being monitored. In the end, a system that reads signals from structures, store the signals on the cloud and notify users if any structural damage arises were developed.

Lean Maintenance 4.0: An application of the IoT Technology in the facility management industry

“…During the Lean team meetings and via Brainstorming sessions, the company decided to implement the IoT for the following reasons:  Obtaining information in real time which is not valid actually for the rounds  Reduction of the rounds realization time  Elimination of daily rounds for specific equipment  Improvement of the quality of service The implementation of IoT for buildings provides connectivity for integrated devices [35]with more robustness and efficiency [36] ,but the IoT solution is expensive in order to be installed on all large sites equipment with limited budgets. For this reason, the company decided to start the installation just on the heat pumpsPAC and water chiller GEG equipment's since they are installed on the terraces, the access to this equipment requires a lot of time and effort as the access is via skydome and these critical equipment are among the customer's priority services.…”