4 - Recent advances and trends in structural health monitoring

Abstract

The implementation of health monitoring in various structures proves to be beneficial in numerous ways like providing enhanced public safety, improving life span of structures, cutting costs, and early detection of risks thus helping in improving the overall performance of the structures. The improved performance of structures is also essential for the nation and its development. Increased usage of various sensors in different bridges like as Tsing Ma Bridge, Confederation Bridge, and Commodore Barry Bridge structures leads to effective structural health monitoring, which further ensures their long life span. Despite using sensors in the structures, there are some factors like environmental factors, misinterpretation of collected data by mixing of various structural health monitoring (SHM) techniques, and on-site construction defects which affects the conclusions related to the nature of damage and its location. In this chapter, a detailed study of benefits of structural health monitoring and thus the need to meet recent requirements by various recent trends is done. With the progress in trends of structural health monitoring techniques challenges which de-toured the final results of SHM techniques are reviewed in detail. This chapter on recent trends in structural health monitoring includes an elaborate study of advanced technology such as optical fiber Bragg grating (OFBG) strain sensors to monitor damages in civil infrastructures, carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP)-OFBG sensing unit to measure the interface strain and fiber optic sensors for measuring small cracks. These recent trends are extremely effective in meeting various requirements for a modern SHM system, but they still encounter various challenges that affect the measurement data and final conclusions. Therefore various research studies are taking place in the SHM field to achieve an absolutely error-proof monitoring system in the near future.