Wireless Sensor Networks for Structural Health Monitoring: A Multi-Scale Approach

Given the present burdens associated with inspection and maintenance of Civil Infrastructure, the development of effective, automated damage diagnosis techniques, including the sensor technologies that support them, has become a major research need. While recent developments in wireless sensor networks have demonstrated their potential to provide continuous structural response data to quantitatively assess structural health, many important issues including network lifetime and stability, damage detection reliability, and trade-offs in model order to balance computational capabilities must be realistically addressed. Only then can wireless embedded sensor networks become a practical tool for Structural Health Monitoring of large, complex Civil Structures. In response to these needs, the concept of a multi-scale wireless sensor network is introduced in this study with a restricted input network activation scheme and the integration of data from a heterogeneous sensor array to improve damage detection for low-order models. The multi-scale network concept introduced here helps to improve power efficiency, minimize packet loss and latency, and eliminate synchronization issues through the use of a decentralized analysis scheme and the activation of sub-networks only in the vicinity of suspected damage, while reducing the required size of the reference pool for the undamaged state. This study introduces the network architecture concept, a strain-driven approach to damage detection and preliminary simulated results. PREVIOUS WORK IN WIRELESS STRUCTURAL HEALTH MONITORING Most research in these areas of “intelligent” structural assessment and evaluation retain the traditional architecture of a centralized data acquisition hub wired to tens or even hundreds of sensors. As cost effectiveness is a major concern, the installation and maintenance of these cabled systems represent significant concerns, prompting the move toward wireless sensor networks, particularly those with local processing capabilities, thus reducing the amount of data transmitted in power-consuming wireless radio communications. Early work in this area was led by Straser and Kiremidjian [1] and T. Kijewski-Correa, M. Haenggi, P. Antsaklis, “Wireless Sensor Networks for Structural Health Monitoring: A Multi-Scale Approach,” 2006 ASCE Structures Congress, 17th Analysis and Computation Specialty Conference, St. Louis MO, May 18-21 2006.