Assessment of Civil Engineering Structures by Vibration Monitoring

Abstract

The need for rapid assessment of the  state of critical and conventional civil structures such as bridges, control centers, airports, hospitals among many, has been amply demonstrated during recent natural disasters. This paper presents the overall framework of structural damage monitoring systems and summarizes current research efforts in the field. Such systems incorporate a sensing and microprocessing unit, data transmission and acquisition system, and damage diagnostic methods. Current advances in wireless communication, micromachined sensors, global positioning systems, and increased computational power provide the tools for potential new solution to many of the obstacles presented by such systems. Issues of communication, power requirements, data transmission, and damage analysis algorithms are addressed in the paper