Acoustic monitoring of structures

This paper describes the development, testing and application of a continuous acoustic monitoring system to detect and locate corrosion-induced failures of tensioned steel elements in post-tensioned, cable-stayed and suspension bridges. The monitoring system utilizes acoustic sensors distributed on a structure. Data is processed on-site and transmitted over the Internet to a central processing facility where processing software is used to generate reports summarizing the time, location and classification of recorded events. Case studies describing the applications and testing of the system on bridge structures are presented and discussed.