Wireless sensors for structural health monitoring and damage detection techniques

Structural health monitoring (SHM) is an emerging field in civil engineering, offering the potential for continuous and periodic assessment of the safety and integrity of civil infrastructure. Based on the knowledge of the condition of the structure, certain preventive measures can be taken to prolong the service life of the structure and prevent catastrophic failure. Damage detection strategies can Ultimately reduce life-cycle cost. Using traditionally wired sensors to implement such a SHM system with a dense array of sensors is quite challenging because of the difficulties in deploying and maintaining the associated wiring. Recent development of smart sensors has created the possibility of dense array of sensors in SHM. Damage detection algorithms which can take advantage of the distributed computing environment offered by smart sensor technology are highly desired but currently limited. Dense arrays of low-cost smart wireless sensor networks (WSNs) have the potential to improve the quality of the SHM dramatically using their on-board computational and wireless communication capabilities. These WSNs provide rich information which SHM algorithms can utilize to detect, locate and assess structural damage caused by severe loading events and by progressive environmental deterioration as well as economical realization of the SHM system. Information from densely instrumented structures is expected to result in deeper insight into the physical state of the structural system. In this article, recent research and development activities in the field of smart wireless sensors and application of smart sensing, monitoring and damage detection techniques for civil infrastructures are presented.