Smart Structures and Systems 

About: Smart Structures and Systems is an academic journal. The journal publishes majorly in the area(s): Structural health monitoring & Vibration. It has an ISSN identifier of 1738-1584. Over the lifetime, 1211 publications have been published receiving 14732 citations.

Structural health monitoring of a cable-stayed bridge using smart sensor technology: deployment and evaluation

Abstract: Structural health monitoring (SHM) of civil infrastructure using wireless smart sensor networks (WSSNs) has received significant public attention in recent years. The benefits of WSSNs are that they are low-cost, easy to install, and provide effective data management via on-board computation. This paper reports on the deployment and evaluation of a state-of-the-art WSSN on the new Jindo Bridge, a cable-stayed bridge in South Korea with a 344-m main span and two 70-m side spans. The central components of the WSSN deployment are the Imote2 smart sensor platforms, a custom-designed multimetric sensor boards, base stations, and software provided by the Illinois Structural Health Monitoring Project (ISHMP) Services Toolsuite. In total, 70 sensor nodes and two base stations have been deployed to monitor the bridge using an autonomous SHM application with excessive wind and vibration triggering the system to initiate monitoring. Additionally, the performance of the system is evaluated in terms of hardware durability, software stability, power consumption and energy harvesting capabilities. The Jindo Bridge SHM system constitutes the largest deployment of wireless smart sensors for civil infrastructure monitoring to date. This deployment demonstrates the strong potential of WSSNs for monitoring of large scale civil infrastructure.

A review of rotorcraft Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) developments and applications in civil engineering

Abstract: Civil engineers always face the challenge of uncertainty in planning, building, and maintaining infrastructure. These works rely heavily on a variety of surveying and monitoring techniques. Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are an effective approach to obtain information from an additional view, and potentially bring significant benefits to civil engineering. This paper gives an overview of the state of UAV developments and their possible applications in civil engineering. The paper begins with an introduction to UAV hardware, software, and control methodologies. It also reviews the latest developments in technologies related to UAVs, such as control theories, navigation methods, and image processing. Finally, the paper concludes with a summary of the potential applications of UAV to seismic risk assessment, transportation, disaster response, construction management, surveying and mapping, and flood monitoring and assessment.

Flexible smart sensor framework for autonomous structural health monitoring

Abstract: Wireless smart sensors enable new approaches to improve structural health monitoring (SHM) practices through the use of distributed data processing. Such an approach is scalable to the large number of sensor nodes required for high-fidelity modal analysis and damage detection. While much of the technology associated with smart sensors has been available for nearly a decade, there have been limited numbers of full- scale implementations due to the lack of critical hardware and software elements. This research develops a flexible wireless smart sensor framework for full-scale, autonomous SHM that integrates the necessary software and hardware while addressing key implementation requirements. The Imote2 smart sensor platform is employed, providing the computation and communication resources that support demanding sensor network applications such as SHM of civil infrastructure. A multi-metric Imote2 sensor board with onboard signal processing specifically designed for SHM applications has been designed and validated. The framework software is based on a service-oriented architecture that is modular, reusable and extensible, thus allowing engineers to more readily realize the potential of smart sensor technology. Flexible network management software combines a sleep/wake cycle for enhanced power efficiency with threshold detection for triggering network wide operations such as synchronized sensing or decentralized modal analysis. The framework developed in this research has been validated on a full-scale a cable-stayed bridge in South Korea.

A critical comparison of reflectometry methods for location of wiring faults

Abstract: Aging wiring in buildings, aircraft and transportation systems, consumer products, industrial machinery, etc. is among the most significant potential causes of catastrophic failure and maintenance cost in these structures. Smart wire health monitoring can therefore have a substantial impact on the overall health monitoring of the system. Reflectometry is commonly used for locating faults on wire and cables. This paper compares Time domain reflectometry (TDR), frequency domain reflectometry (FDR), mixed signal reflectometry (MSR), sequence time domain reflectometry (STDR), spread spectrum time domain reflectometry (SSTDR) and capacitance sensors in terms of their accuracy, convenience, cost, size, and ease of use. Advantages and limitations of each method are outlined and evaluated for several types of aircraft cables. The results in this paper can be extrapolated to other types of wire and cable systems.

Constructing the mode shapes of a bridge from a passing vehicle: a theoretical study

Abstract: This paper presents a theoretical algorithm for constructing the mode shapes of a bridge from the dynamic responses of a test vehicle moving over the bridge. In comparison with those approaches that utilize a limited number of sensors deployed on the bridge, the present approach can offer much more spatial information, as well as higher resolution in mode shapes, since the test vehicle can receive the vibration characteristics of each point during its passage on the bridge. Basically only one or few sensors are required to be installed on the test vehicle. Factors that affect the accuracy of the present approach for constructing the bridge mode shapes are studied, including the vehicle speed, random traffic, and road surface roughness. Through numerical simulations, the present approach is verified to be feasible under the condition of constant and low vehicle speeds.