A sensor node is generally small in physical size (typically a few cm or smaller) and consist of a sensor, a transceiver, and supporting electronics. They are connected as a wireless network and are sometimes isolated and embedded in structures, which are not easily accessible. The lifespan of the sensor node is critically dependent upon the power source it contains. Instead of using a limited ...

Ambient vibration tests are conducted widely to estimate the modal parameters of a structure. The work proposes an efficient wavelet-based approach to determine the modal parameters of a structure from its ambient vibration responses. The proposed approach integrates the time series autoregressive (AR) model with the stationary wavelet packet transform. In addition to providing a richer decompo...

Extracting an electrical energy from various environmental sources, called energy harvesting (or energy scavenging), has been an issue and attracting researchers’ attention in energy replenishable networks. In particular, a piezoelectric device based energy harvesting from ambient vibrations is a promising technique for easy of battery energy replenishment in vibration-motivated wireless sensor...

Extracting an electrical energy from various environmental sources, called energy harvesting (or energy scavenging), has been attracting researchers’ attention in energy replenishable networks. In particular, a piezoelectric device based energy harvesting from ambient vibrations is a promising technique for easy of battery energy replenishment in vibration-motivated wireless sensor networks (WS...

Ambient mechanical vibrations have emerged as a viable energy source for low-power wireless sensor nodes aiming the upcoming era of the 'Internet of Things'. Recently, purposefully induced dynamical nonlinearities have been exploited to widen the frequency spectrum of vibration energy harvesters. Here we investigate some critical inconsistencies between the theoretical formulation and applicati...

Being able to significantly reduce system installation time and cost, wireless sensing technology has attracted much interest in the structural health monitoring (SHM) community. This paper reports the field application of a wireless sensing system on a 4-span highway bridge located in Wayne, New Jersey in the US. Bridge vibration due to traffic and ambient excitation is measured. To enhance th...

Ambient vibration analysis is proposed as an alternative way to inspect buildings before or after an earthquake. This fast and low-cost method is well-adapted to large-scale studies for which a large amount of buildings has to be checked. One of the most common critics usually done on the use of ambient vibrations in structures is the very low level of vibrations. Because of the low amplitude r...