Design and Validation of an Accurate Low-Cost Data Acquisition System for Structural Health Monitoring of a Pedestrian Bridge

Abstract

Structural health monitoring (SHM) is an effective operating technique devoted to enhance the robustness of an infrastructure, and to validate its safety requirements. The aim of SHM is to determine a structure’s reaction when subjected to any type of excitation, by means of identifying modifications in basic vibration measurements and modal parameters such as natural frequencies, damping and mode shapes. Consequently, sensors are mounted on a structure intending to record data on equal time intervals basis prior to, during and after an induced stimulation. Therefore, the necessity to adopt a computer-based data acquisition (DAQ) technique is required in this analytical approach in order to evaluate vibrational signals collected by sensors placed on a structure. In this work an accurate microcontroller-based DAQ system is proposed to monitor a pedestrian bridge located in Athens Greece for the purpose of characterizing the system state and evaluate the modal properties of the investigated structure. Four low-cost yet accurate triaxial accelerometers were systematically placed along the bridge intending to report the system response toward different generated perturbations. The proposed monitoring and computational system was tested in laboratory conditions prior to the bridge assessment. Three triaxial accelerometer were installed on a steel cantilever beam. A comparative analysis between the results of the suggested DAQ system and that of the standard laboratory DAQ system National Instrument DAQ was performed to test the accuracy of the suggested framework.

Dynamic Assessment of the Structural Behavior of a Pedestrian Bridge Aiming to Characterize and Evaluate Its Comfort Level

“…The first phase was intended to calculate the bridge eigenfrequencies, damping ratios, and eigenmodes. This was achieved through the application of controlled excitations, The adopted DAQ system was designed and validated by El Dahr et al in 2022 [46]. It is a microcontroller-based, accurate, and low-cost acquisition framework that facilitates the aggregation and analysis of gathered data, relying on a Teensy 4.1 digital microcontroller of a resolution of 32 bits to execute these operations.…”

Development and Validation of a LabVIEW Automated Software System for Displacement and Dynamic Modal Parameters Analysis Purposes

“…Both sensors were connected to a DAQ system developed by El Dahr et al in 2022. It is based on a digital processor as it incorporates the collection and evaluation of the measurement data [68]. The DAQ system comprises sensors to collect data and converts it from physical values into electric waveform, an acquisition hardware component based on the digital computer [69] to process the recorded signal and encode it from the signal to numerical data as well as a server to receive the data and calculate the output through a programming software: LabVIEW.…”

Construction of Automatic Identification System for Bridge Structural Parameters Based on Improved Damage Algorithm

“…Monitoring bridge structures is a crucial task for bridge construction. El Dahr R proposed that the use of Structural health monitoring is an effective operational technology to enhance the robustness of infrastructure [1]. Amendola G analyzed the impact of the performance of double concave friction pendulum isolators on the seismic performance of isolated multi-span continuous bridge decks in her research [2].…”