Abstract
This paper proposes a wireless inclinometer sensor node for structural health monitoring (SHM) that can be applied to civil engineering and building structures subjected to various loadings. The inclinometer used in this study employs a method for calculating the tilt based on the difference between the static acceleration and the acceleration due to gravity, using a micro-electro-mechanical system (MEMS)-based accelerometer. A wireless sensor node was developed through which tilt measurement data are wirelessly transmitted to a monitoring server. This node consists of a slave node that uses a short-distance wireless communication system (RF 2.4 GHz) and a master node that uses a long-distance telecommunication system (code division multiple access—CDMA). The communication distance limitation, which is recognized as an important issue in wireless monitoring systems, has been resolved via these two wireless communication components. The reliability of the proposed wireless inclinometer sensor node was verified experimentally by comparing the values measured by the inclinometer and subsequently transferred to the monitoring server via wired and wireless transfer methods to permit a performance evaluation of the wireless communication sensor nodes. The experimental results indicated that the two systems (wired and wireless transfer systems) yielded almost identical values at a tilt angle greater than 1°, and a uniform difference was observed at a tilt angle less than 0.42° (approximately 0.0032° corresponding to 0.76% of the tilt angle, 0.42°) regardless of the tilt size. This result was deemed to be within the allowable range of measurement error in SHM. Thus, the wireless transfer system proposed in this study was experimentally verified for practical application in a structural health monitoring system.
Highlights
Performance degradation of civil engineering and building structures due to various loads and aging over their life cycles is an important evaluation factor in terms of the safety of both the structures and their users
An inclinometer unit suitable for use in structural health monitoring (SHM) of civil engineering and building structures was manufactured using an inclinometer sensor based on a micro-electro-mechanical system (MEMS)-based accelerometer, and a wireless inclinometer sensor node was developed for use in an efficient monitoring system via wireless transmission of tilt measurements
A tilt measurement experiment was conducted with a wired inclinometer to verify the accuracy of the wireless transmission system and the wireless inclinometer sensor node developed in this study
Summary
Performance degradation of civil engineering and building structures due to various loads and aging over their life cycles is an important evaluation factor in terms of the safety of both the structures and their users. The pendulum types are largely represented by the categories of solid mass, liquid, and gas [13,14], and resistive, capacitive, inductive, magnetic, fiber optic, and optical methods are used to measure the response of the pendulum with respect to gravity [10,15] Properties such as small size, low weight, and accuracy are necessary conditions for the application of inclinometers to civil engineering and building structures, and inclinometer sensors that meet these conditions have been developed. Many technical problems (e.g., power consumption; time synchronization; multi-scale network topologies—i.e., scalability; decentralized data processing; and power-efficient data-driven usage strategies) arise that must be solved before a wireless monitoring system can be applied to various structures on a long-term basis The application of such a wireless monitoring system is essential for efficient SHM implementation for such structures, which have become increasingly large, tall, and complex. The objective of this experiment was to verify the reliability of the wireless transfer method by comparing the measurement results transmitted to the server by both wired and wireless communication
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
