Reliable Data Acquisition System for a Low-Cost Accelerograph Applied to Structural Health Monitoring

Abstract

This paper presents and evaluates a continuous recording system designed for a low-cost seismic station. The architecture has three main blocks. An accelerometer sensor based on MEMS technology (Microelectromechanical Systems), an SBC platform (Single Board Computer) with embedded Linux and a microcontroller device. In particular, the microcontroller represents the central component which operates as an intermediate agent to manage the communication between the accelerometer and the SBC block. This strategy allows the system for data acquisition in real time. On the other hand, the SBC platform is used for storing and processing data as well as in order to configure the remote communication with the station. This proposal is intended as a robust solution for structural health monitoring (i.e. in order to characterize the response of an infrastructure before, during and after a seismic event). The paper details the communication scheme between the system components, which has been minutely designed to ensure the samples are collected without information loss. Furthermore, for the experimental evaluation the station was located in the facilities on a relevant infrastructure, specifically a hydroelectric dam. The system operation was compared and verified with respect to a certified accelerograph station. Results prove that the continuous recording system operates successfully and allows for detecting seismic events according to requirements of structural health applications (i.e. detects events with a frequency of vibration less than 100 Hz). Specifically, through the system implemented it was possible to characterize the effect of a seismic event of 4 MD reported by the regional seismology network and with epicenter located about 30 Km of the hydroelectric dam. Particularly, the vibration frequencies detected on the infrastructure are in the range of 13 Hz and 29 Hz. Regarding the station performance, results from experiments reveals an average CPU load of 51%, consequently the processes configured on the SBC platform do not involve an overload. Finally, the average energy consumption of the station is close to 2.4 W, therefore autonomy provided by the backup system is aroud of 10 hours.

Análisis de métodos OMA para la extracción de parámetros modales sobre edificios existentes

“…Como se muestra en la figura, se desarrollan dos tipos de estaciones de acelerógrafos. La primera estación se basa en el trabajo presentado en (Muñoz et al, 2021), la misma que emplea un dispositivo SBC (Single Board Computer) y un microcontrolador que realiza la lectura de los datos del sensor acelerómetro, la sincronización de tiempo y el envío de datos al dispositivo SBC. El segundo tipo de estación, denominada estación nodo concentrador-sensores, corresponde a una variante de la primera estación.…”

GPS-Based Network Synchronization of Wireless Sensors for Extracting Propagation of Disturbance on Structural Systems

“…This is generally performed implementing the Real-Time Kinematic (RTK) technique. The implementation of this approach, alongside the use of GPS technology in SHM philosophy, has been widely reported in the literature [ 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 ].…”

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

“…The microcontroller dsPIC33EP256MC [40] was connecting MEMS accelerometer to a single board computer Raspberry Pi 3 [41], integrated with Linux operating system. Seismic motion was detected in both longitudinal and horizontal directions and compared with the results of a validated accelerograph component showing a difference of 19% in the first and 15% in the second direction [42]. Nuhu et al, (2021) integrated a new DAQ system that incorporates using temperature and vibration readings with integrating fuzzy interference using WSN, to assess the health of a residential structure on a long-term basis.…”