Scour Damage Detection and Structural Health Monitoring of a Laboratory-Scaled Bridge Using a Vibration Energy Harvesting Device

Abstract

A vibration-based bridge scour detection procedure using a cantilever-based piezoelectric energy harvesting device (EHD) is proposed here. This has an advantage over an accelerometer-based method in that potentially, the requirement for a power source can be negated with the only power requirement being the storage and/or transmission of the data. Ideally, this source of power could be fulfilled by the EHD itself, although much research is currently being done to explore this. The open-circuit EHD voltage is used here to detect bridge frequency shifts arising due to scour. Using one EHD attached to the central bridge pier, both scour at the pier of installation and scour at another bridge pier can be detected from the EHD voltage generated during the bridge free-vibration stage, while the harvester is attached to a healthy pier. The method would work best with an initial modal analysis of the bridge structure in order to identify frequencies that may be sensitive to scour. Frequency components corresponding to harmonic loading and electrical interference arising from experiments are removed using the filter bank property of singular spectrum analysis (SSA). These frequencies can then be monitored by using harvested voltage from the energy harvesting device and successfully utilised towards structural health monitoring of a model bridge affected by scour.

Use of mode shape ratios for pier scour monitoring in two-span integral bridges under changing environmental conditions

“…Practically speaking this should not present as a major issue, since it is anticipated that changes in temperature will typically occur over relatively long time periods compared to scour, which tends to occur rapidly under flooded conditions. (Cahill et al 2018, Fitzgerald et al 2019a). Furthermore, it is anticipated that the method would work best if a full modal study of the target structure is undertaken at the time of sensor deployment.…”

A New Method to Perform Direct Efficiency Measurement and Power Flow Analysis in Vibration Energy Harvesters

“…This type of movement is present in machines and structures where collecting relevant operational information has a beneficial impact, namely in industrial equipment, cars, aircraft, and bridges [ 1 , 3 ]. Moreover, PEHs are also employed in harvesting from human movement [ 1 ]; substantial effort has therefore been invested in developing and improving PEHs to generate as much energy as possible from the oscillations.…”

Nondestructive Testing of the Miter Gates Using Various Measurement Methods

“…This property is often the basis of engineering evaluations regarding damages and their origin. Studies in [12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20] have specified some methods used for the detection of structural damages based on dynamic parameters. In addition, other nondestructive methods are known, such as inter alia model-based calculations and optimization data-driven algorithms [21,22], or mechanical wave propagation records [23,24].…”