Development of a low-cost solution for remote Structural Health Monitoring

Abstract

In the modern world, civil engineering structures are of paramount importance. With the increasing population, the need for the development of new infrastructure is at a historic high. Although this need is being amply met with the modernization of construction techniques, increasing maintenance costs of existing structures is still a critical issue. Early damage detection through continuous health monitoring instead of conventional periodic inspection, is the promising way forward for healthy structures with the least maintenance requirement. As the damage is identified at the initial stage, the cost associated with its repair can be reduced. Considering the immense scale of civil infrastructure, currently available structural health monitoring systems are not feasible for mass application as they are prohibitively expensive. Hence, it is the need of the hour to develop a remote real-time Structural Health Monitoring System (SHMS). Our proposed system utilized a vibration-based structural health monitoring approach and extracted dynamic parameters from acceleration data. The system consists of a node tasked with data collection and transmission and a server tasked with data post-processing and display. The node comprises the following main hardware components: ESP32 as a microcontroller unit and ADXL345 as an accelerometer. The system was developed with the capability of multiple node integration, onboard data storage to eliminate sampling rate inconsistencies, dual trigger modes to achieve a high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), power usage optimization to prolong stand-by time, and wireless data transmission along with automated post-processing. To minimize the cost of the system, Internet of Things (IoT) technology was adopted in the development of the system.