Development and Application of High-Sensitivity Wireless Smart Sensors for Decentralized Stochastic Modal Identification

• Published in: Journal of Engineering Mechanics Vol. 138; no. 6; pp. 683 - 694
• Main Authors: Jo, Hongki, Sim, Sung-Han, Nagayama, Tomonori, Spencer, B. F
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Reston, VA American Society of Civil Engineers 01.06.2012; American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE)
• Subjects: Ambient vibrations; Boards; Civil structure; Cost-effective means; Decentralized; Dense arrays; Exact sciences and technology; Experimental modal analysis; Fundamental areas of phenomenology (including applications); General equipment and techniques; Global time synchronizations; High-sensitivity; High-sensitivity sensor; Instruments, apparatus, components and techniques common to several branches of physics and astronomy; Low resolution; Measurement and testing methods; Mechanical instruments, equipment and techniques; Micromechanical devices and systems; Modal identification; Natural excitations; Networks; Physics; Reference sensors; Sensor arrays; Sensors; Sensors (chemical, optical, electrical, movement, gas, etc.); remote sensing; Smart sensor technology; Smart sensors; Solid mechanics; Spectral estimate; Structural and continuum mechanics; Structural health monitoring; Technical Papers; Vibration, mechanical wave, dynamic stability (aeroelasticity, vibration control...); Wired and wireless; Wireless networks; Wireless smart sensors; Modal analysis; Wireless telecommunication; Data transmission; Processing time; Identification; Vibration test; Structural health monitoring; Large-scale structure; High-sensitivity sensor; Vibrations; High sensitivity; Modelling; System identification; Microelectromechanical device; Pattern extraction; Monitoring; Metering; Accelerometers; Probabilistic approach; Probe instruments; Measurement sensor; Unfolding; Data processing; Pattern recognition; Synchronization; Intelligent sensors; Wireless network; Stochastic models; Sensor array; Decentralized sensor network; Wireless smart sensor network
• ISSN: 0733-9399; 1943-7889
• DOI: 10.1061/(ASCE)EM.1943-7889.0000352

AbstractState-of-the-art smart sensor technology enables deployment of dense arrays of sensors, which is critical for structural health monitoring (SHM) of complicated and large-scale civil structures. Despite recent successful implementation of various wireless smart sensor networks (WSSNs) for full-scale SHM, the low-cost micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) sensors commonly used in smart sensors cannot readily measure low-level ambient vibrations because of their relatively low resolution. Combined use of conventional wired high-sensitivity sensors with low-cost wireless smart sensors has been shown to provide improved spectral estimates of response that can lead to improved experimental modal analysis. However, such a heterogeneous network of wired and wireless sensors requires central collection of an enormous amount of raw data and off-network processing to achieve global time synchronization; consequently, many of the advantages of WSSNs for SHM are lost. In this paper, the development of a new high-sensitivity accelerometer board (SHM-H) for the Imote2 wireless smart sensor (WSS) platform is presented. The use of a small number of these high-sensitivity WSSs, composed of the SHM-H and Imote2, as reference sensors in the Natural Excitation Technique—based decentralized WSSN strategy is explored and is shown to provide a cost-effective means of improving modal feature extraction in the decentralized WSSN for SHM.