A wireless structural monitoring system with embedded damage algorithms and decision support system

摘要

A wireless structural monitoring system was designed and built to accommodate multiple sensors and provide alerts through a decision support system. In this paper we describe the main features of the system and present the results of its application to a laboratory test. The test was a quarter scale four-span three-pier bridge subjected to gradually increasing earthquake motion with white noise excitations between the strong motions conducted at the University of Nevada, Reno. Autoregressive (AR) models were used to characterise the signals collected from the test and damage was identified through Gaussian mixture models. Damage was quantified using the Mahalanobis distance between undamaged and various damage states of the bridge. The experiment provided a proof of concept for the wireless system and its multitude of features. The analysis of the data demonstrated that the algorithm is capable of identifying the progression of damage and showed good agreement between the measured and observed damage states.