Application of Inexpensive Sensors for Shm of Bridges Improved by Fuzzy Inference and Data Mining Techniques
Saman Shoorabi Sani and Mona Kalate Arabi
In this study, a system for monitoring the structural health of bridge deck and the prediction of the various possible damages to the bridge deck structure, was designed based on measuring the temperature and humidity using wireless sensor networks, and then it was implemented and investigated. A scaled model of a conventional medium sized bridge (length of 50 meters, height of 10 meters, and with 2 piers) was examined for the purpose of this study. This method includes installing two sensor nodes with the ability of measuring temperature and humidity on both side of the scaled model of a conventional bridge. The data collected by the system including temperature and humidity values are received by a LABVIEW-based software to be analyzed and stored in a database. Proposed SHM monitoring system is equipped by a novel method of using data mining techniques on the database of climatic conditions of past few years related to the location of the bridge to predict the occurrence and severity of future damages. In addition, this system has several alarm levels which are based on analysis of bridge conditions with fuzzy inference methods, so it can issue proactive and precise alarms regarding to the position of the occurrence of possible damages and the severity of them in the bridge deck to ensure total proactive maintenance (TPM). Very low costs, increased efficiency of the bridge service, and reduced maintenance costs makes this SHM system a practical and applicable system. The data and results related to all mentioned subjects were thoroughly discussed and the accuracy and reliability of the SHM systems has been evaluated. The results show that this system is qualified to be used as a SHM system in medium size to large size bridges.
Keywords: Structural Health Monitoring, Wireless Sensor Networks, Proactive Maintenance Of Bridges, Data Mining And Fuzzy Inference Techniques