A low‐noise, real‐time, wireless data acquisition system for structural monitoring applications

Structural health monitoring systems are conceived to automatically monitor the structural health state in real-time. The high-cost and the labor intensive installation of wired monitoring system suggest that structural monitoring systems be realized of a wireless nature. This study explores the development of a general and high-performance wireless data acquisition system (WDAQS) specifically designed for sensors commonly adopted in structural health monitoring applications. When compared with wired sensor technology, wireless sensor technology suffers limited energy supply, long data collection delay, big noise floor, and data loss. Addressing these issues, in the design of the WDAQS, several features are pursued, including flexible sensor interfaces, high power efficiency, low-noise data acquisition, and real-time and lossless data transmissions. The design of the system is presented in detail in terms of hardware, firmware, and software. Several experiments are carried out to validate and evaluate the system. The results show that the WDAQS is able to acquire high-quality data. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

[1]  ZhiCong Chen,et al.  Energy efficiency strategy for a general real-time wireless sensor platform , 2014 .

[2]  Fabio Casciati,et al.  A power harvester for wireless sensing applications , 2007 .

[3]  Jerome P. Lynch,et al.  Rapid-to-deploy reconfigurable wireless structural monitoring systems using extended-range wireless sensors , 2010 .

[4]  Ying Lei,et al.  A new type of intelligent wireless sensing network for health monitoring of large-size structures , 2009, International Conference on Smart Materials and Nanotechnology in Engineering.

[5]  Olga Saukh,et al.  A versatile software architecture for civil structure monitoring with wireless sensor networks , 2012 .

[6]  Matteo Bertocco,et al.  Experimental Study of Coexistence Issues Between IEEE 802.11b and IEEE 802.15.4 Wireless Networks , 2008, IEEE Transactions on Instrumentation and Measurement.

[7]  Zhicong Chen,et al.  Energy harvesting and power management of wireless sensors for structural control applications in civil engineering , 2012 .

[8]  Yu Luo,et al.  Intelligent Monitoring of Multistory Buildings under Unknown Earthquake Excitation by a Wireless Sensor Network , 2012, Int. J. Distributed Sens. Networks.

[9]  Lucia Faravelli,et al.  Structural diagnostic via compressive sensing , 2012 .

[10]  Glauco Feltrin,et al.  Wireless sensor networks for long-term structural health monitoring , 2010 .

[11]  Sung-Han Sim,et al.  Automated decentralized modal analysis using smart sensors , 2010 .

[12]  Kah Phooi Seng,et al.  An Adaptive Lossless Data Compression Scheme for Wireless Sensor Networks , 2012, J. Sensors.

[13]  Ratneshwar Jha,et al.  Operational modal analysis of a multi-span skew bridge using real-time wireless sensor networks , 2011 .

[14]  Jerome P. Lynch,et al.  A summary review of wireless sensors and sensor networks for structural health monitoring , 2006 .

[15]  Billie F. Spencer,et al.  Structural health monitoring sensor development for the Imote2 platform , 2008, SPIE Smart Structures and Materials + Nondestructive Evaluation and Health Monitoring.

[16]  Raúl Aquino-Santos,et al.  Open-WiSe: A Solar Powered Wireless Sensor Network Platform , 2012, Sensors.

[17]  Kostas Berberidis,et al.  Power-efficient wireless sensor reachback for SHM , 2012 .

[18]  A. Nayfeh,et al.  Piezoelectric energy harvesting from transverse galloping of bluff bodies , 2012 .

[19]  Lijun Wu,et al.  Local positioning accuracy of laser sensors for structural health monitoring , 2013 .

[20]  Billie F. Spencer,et al.  Feasibility Study of Micro-Wind Turbines for Powering Wireless Sensors on a Cable-Stayed Bridge , 2012 .

[21]  Yang Wang,et al.  Intelligent Wireless Sensors with Application to the Identification of Structural Modal Parameters and Steel Cable Forces: From the Lab to the Field , 2010 .

[22]  Zhicong Chen,et al.  A multi‐channel wireless connection system for structural health monitoring applications , 2011 .

[23]  Yan Yu,et al.  Design, calibration and application of wireless sensors for structural global and local monitoring of civil infrastructures , 2010 .