USING MEMS SENSORS IN THE BRIDGE SCOUR MONITORING SYSTEM

Scour failures tend to occur suddenly and without warning. Hydraulic scouring is one of the major factors in bridge failure. Bridges that are subject to periodic flooding should be monitored during high-flow seasons for the safety of the public. Wireless sensor networks have been applied widely, and in many fields. In this study, micro-electro-mechanical system (MEMS) pressure sensors are integrated with the wireless Zigbee network on a sensor board for real-time bridge scour monitoring. A wireless MEMS scour monitoring system has been developed and tested in the laboratory. This system can measure the scouring/deposition process and the variations of water levels at a bridge pier. A scour model is employed to calculate the scour-depth evolution and validated with real-time measured data. The results indicate that the proposed system has potential applicability to monitor scour evolution in the field.