The necessary permanent WiFi health monitoring of the structures as condition for the smart buildings in smart cities

Abstract

In the past, our safety “standard” were much lower than now. We felt comfortable driving cars without a seat belt, without exterior rear mirror, without ABS nor AirBag. Today our cars are equipped with sensors and controls much better than the airplanes that flew in second World War. Our continuous request of comfort goes hand in hand with the increasing safety for our life. Most of the machines and equipments around us enjoy of sophisticated control system, but civil structures not yet. Only few special bridges, mainly suspension or cable stay bridges, have some permanent tools to control them, and provide alert communication in case of suspect behaviour. “Normal”, simple bridges miss this type of controls. Buildings, monuments, schools, hospitals, strategic buildings (Civil protection, Municipality, Police Stations, TV stations, communication centers…), all miss monitoring system for structural safety. Most of “smart solutions” refer to domotic (house automation) aspect like temperature, heating/air conditioning, lights, burglar alarm. All of them miss structural health control, forgetting problem like earthquake, structure aging, material decay and so on. Increasing the structural safety control of the buildings with smart devices means to increase global safety for the cities. The paper introduces some experiences of the authors in this field, and presents some possible scenarios for the future.