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A feasibility study of damage tracking through the diffusive communication of wireless sensors

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Abstract

The objective of this paper is to investigate the feasibility of wireless sensors in the development of an autonomous structural health monitoring system. A collaborative searching algorithm is developed such that massively deployed wireless sensor nodes in a structure conveniently comprise a group and constitute a damage-surveillance perimeter. Wireless sensors in this perimeter spontaneously activate themselves for damage-tracking tasks by networking with neighboring sensors. When the damage-sensitive parameter that is measured by a sensor node exceeds a certain threshold, the process of damage-tracking begins. The proposed damage-tracking algorithm does not require any type of global control. Instead, sensor-networking and a pairwise-comparison algorithm that is implemented at each sensor node allows collaborative decision-making for tracking the changes, such as local strain, in structural properties. The extant autonomous, damage-tracking algorithms have been demonstrated through only numerical simulations for a single-damage case. Here, the study is further expanded to address the problem of simultaneously tracking multiple instances of damage in three-dimensional space by using improved algorithms for sensor networking. An event-based task-executing functionality of individual sensor nodes is successfully implemented and verified using four wireless strain sensors that are mounted on a cantilevered beam structure. Experimental results reveal that the overall capability of wireless sensor nodes is functional enough to enable a wireless-based autonomous structural health monitoring system.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Supercomputing Application Team, Korea Institute of Science and Technology Information, Daejeon, South Korea, 305-806

    Minjoong Jeong

  2. Dept. of Computer Science, Dongguk Univ.-Seoul, 26, Pil-dong, Jung-gu, Seoul, South Korea, 100-715

    Jong-Goo Bae

  3. Dept. of Mechanical, Robotics and Energy Engineering, Dongguk Univ.-Seoul, 26, Pil-dong, Jung-gu, Seoul, South Korea, 100-715

    Bong-Hwan Koh

Authors
  1. Minjoong Jeong
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  2. Jong-Goo Bae
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  3. Bong-Hwan Koh
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Correspondence to Bong-Hwan Koh.

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Jeong, M., Bae, JG. & Koh, BH. A feasibility study of damage tracking through the diffusive communication of wireless sensors. Int. J. Precis. Eng. Manuf. 11, 23–29 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12541-010-0003-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12541-010-0003-6

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