• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.19 no.6
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• pp.653-663
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• 2017

The modal parameters of the deck of Runyang Suspension Bridge (RSB) as well as their relationships with wind and temperature are studied based on the data recorded by its Structural Health Monitoring System (SHMS). Firstly, frequency analysis on the vertical responses at the two sides of the deck is carried out to distinguish the vertical and torsional vibration modes. Then, the vertical, torsional and lateral modal parameters of the deck of RSB are identified using Hilbert-Huang Transform (HHT) and validated by the identified results before RSB was opened to traffic. On the basis of this, the modal frequencies and damping ratios of RSB during the whole process of Typhoon Masta are obtained. And the correlation analysis on the modal parameters and wind environmental factors is then conducted. Results show that the HHT can achieve an accurate modal identification of RSB and the damping ratios show an obvious decay trend as the frequencies increase. Besides, compared to frequencies, the damping ratios are more sensitive to the environmental factors, in particular, the wind speed. Further study on configuring the variation law of modal parameters related with environmental factors should be continued.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.56 no.6
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• pp.939-957
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• 2015

In this paper, a new approach based on the continuum model is proposed to estimate the main cable tension force of suspension bridges from measured natural frequencies. This approach considered the vertical vibration of a main cable hinged at both towers and supported by an elastic girder and hangers along its entire length. The equation reflected the relationship between vibration frequency and horizontal tension force of a main cable was derived. To avoid to generate the additional cable tension force by sag-extensibility, the analytical solution of characteristic equation for anti-symmetrical vibration mode of the main cable was calculated. Then, the estimation of main cable tension force was carried out by anti-symmetric characteristic frequency vector. The errors of estimation due to characteristic frequency deviations were investigated through numerical analysis of the main cable of Taizhou Bridge. A field experiment was conducted to verify the proposed approach. Through measuring and analyzing the responses of a main cable of Taizhou Bridge under ambient excitation, the horizontal tension force of the main cable was identified from the first three odd frequencies. It is shown that the estimated results agree well with the designed values. The proposed approach can be used to conduct the long-term health monitoring of suspension bridges.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.20-29
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• 2022

The operational modal analysis (OMA) technique, which extracts the modal parameters of a structural system using ambient vibrations, has been actively developed as a field of structural health monitoring of cable-supported bridges. In this paper, the short and long-term modal parameters of a cable-stayed bridge were evaluated using the acceleration data obtained from the two ambient vibration tests (AVTs) and three years of continuous measurements. A total of 27 vertical modes and 1 lateral mode in the range 0.1 ~ 2.5 Hz were extracted from the high-resolution AVTs which were conducted in the 6th and 19th years after its completion. Existing OMA methods such as Peak-Picking (PP), Eigensystem Realization Algorithm with Data Correlation (ERADC), Frequency Domain Decomposition (FDD) and Time Domain Decomposition (TDD) were applied for modal parameters extraction, and it was confirmed that there was no significant difference between the applied methods. From the correlation analysis between long-term natural frequencies and environmental factors, it was confirmed that temperature change is the dominant factor influencing natural frequency fluctuations. It was revealed that the decreased natural frequencies of the bridge were not due to changes in structural performance and integrity, but to the environmental effects caused by the temperature difference between the two AVTs. In addition, when the TDD technique is applied, the accuracy of extracted mode shapes is improved by adding a proposed algorithm that normalizes the sequence so that the autocorrelations at zero lag equal 1.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.17 no.3_4
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• pp.409-428
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• 2004

In this paper, a Holder exponent, a measure of the degree to which a signal is differentiable, is presented to detect the presence of a discontinuity and when the discontinuity occurs in a dynamic signal. This discontinuity detection has potential applications to structural health monitoring because discontinuities are often introduced into dynamic response data as a result of certain types of damage. Wavelet transforms are incorporated with the Holder exponent to capture the time varying nature of discontinuities, and a classification procedure is developed to quantify when changes in the Holder exponent are significant. The proposed Holder exponent analysis is applied to various experimental signals to reveal underlying damage causing events from the signals. Signals being analyzed include acceleration response of a mechanical system with a rattling internal part, acceleration signals of a three-story building model with a loosing bolt, and strain records of an in-situ bridge during construction. The experimental results presented in this paper demonstrate that the Holder exponent can be an effective tool for identifying certain types of events that introduce discontinuities into the measured dynamic response data.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.55-70
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• 2014

The paper presents a multi-objective optimization strategy for a multi-type sensor placement for Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) of long span bridges. The problem is formulated for simultaneous placement of strain sensors and accelerometers (heterogeneous network) based on application demands for SHM system. Modal Identification (MI) and Accurate Mode Shape Expansion (AMSE) were chosen as the application demands for SHM. The optimization problem is solved through the use of integer Genetic Algorithm (GA) to maximize a common metric to ensure adequate MI and AMSE. The performance of the joint optimization problem solved by GA is compared with other established methods for homogenous sensor placement. The results indicate that the use of a multi-type sensor system can improve the quality of SHM. It has also been demonstrated that use of GA improves the overall quality of the sensor placement compared to other methods for optimization of sensor placement.

• The KIPS Transactions:PartD
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• v.18D no.5
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• pp.393-402
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• 2011

This paper describes a design and application of middleware that is essential to the context-aware system. We define a transducer interface protocol in order to deal with a variety of context data. For the purpose of systematic process of data between middleware modules, a message oriented middleware is designed and implemented. Memory improves the performance of high-performance computing system compared to previous strategies. Context aware middleware adopts service oriented architecture so that functions in modules may be independent and scalability can be remarkable. Using messages across modules decreases the complexity of the application development. In order to justify the usefulness of the proposed context aware middleware, we carried out our experiments in bridge health monitoring system and verified the efficacy.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.17 no.6
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• pp.1067-1085
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• 2016

Nonstationary features existing in tropical storms have been frequently captured in recent field measurements, and the applicability of the stationary theory to the analysis of wind characteristics needs to be discussed. In this study, a tropical storm called Nakri measured at Taizhou Bridge site based on structural health monitoring (SHM) system in 2014 is analyzed to give a comparison of the stationary and nonstationary characteristics. The stationarity of the wind records in the view of mean and variance is first evaluated with the run test method. Then the wind data are respectively analyzed with the traditional stationary model and the wavelet-based nonstationary model. The obtained wind characteristics such as the mean wind velocity, turbulence intensity, turbulence integral scale and power spectral density (PSD) are compared accordingly. Also, the stationary and nonstationary PSDs are fitted to present the turbulence energy distribution in frequency domain, among which a modulating function is included in the nonstationary PSD to revise the non-monotonicity. The modulated nonstationary PSD can be utilized to unconditionally simulate the turbulence presented by the nonstationary wind model. The results of this study recommend a transition from stationarity to nonstationarity in the analysis of wind characteristics, and further in the accurate prediction of wind-induced vibrations for engineering structures.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.593-608
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• 2015

In many of the industrialized countries an increasing amount of infrastructure is ageing. This has become specifically critical to bridges which are a major asset with respect to keeping an economy alive. Life of this infrastructure is scattering but often little quantifiable information is known with respect to its damage condition. This article describes how a damage tolerance approach used in aviation today may even be applied to civil infrastructure in the sense that operational life can be applied in the context of modern life cycle management. This can be applied for steel structures as a complete process where much of the damage accumulation behavior is known and may even be adopted to concrete structures in principle, where much of the missing knowledge in damage accumulation has to be substituted by enhanced inspection. This enhanced and continuous inspection can be achieved through robotic systems in a first approach as well as built in sensors in the sense of structural health monitoring (SHM).

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.6 no.5_6
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• pp.689-709
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• 2010

In this paper, a low cost, low power but multifunctional wireless sensor node is presented for the impedance-based SHM using piezoelectric sensors. Firstly, a miniaturized impedance measuring chip device is utilized for low cost and low power structural excitation/sensing. Then, structural damage detection/sensor self-diagnosis algorithms are embedded on the on-board microcontroller. This sensor node uses the power harvested from the solar energy to measure and analyze the impedance data. Simultaneously it monitors temperature on the structure near the piezoelectric sensor and battery power consumption. The wireless sensor node is based on the TinyOS platform for operation, and users can take MATLAB$^{(R)}$ interface for the control of the sensor node through serial communication. In order to validate the performance of this multifunctional wireless impedance sensor node, a series of experimental studies have been carried out for detecting loose bolts and crack damages on lab-scale steel structural members as well as on real steel bridge and building structures. It has been found that the proposed sensor nodes can be effectively used for local wireless health monitoring of structural components and for constructing a low-cost and multifunctional SHM system as "place and forget" wireless sensors.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.30 no.6
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• pp.583-599
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• 2022

In this paper, a multi-objective wireless sensor network configuration optimization method is proposed. The proposed method aims to determine the optimal information and lifespan wireless sensor network for structural health monitoring of large-scale infrastructures. In particular, cluster-based wireless sensor networks with multi-type of sensors are considered. To optimize the lifetime of the wireless sensor network, a cluster-based network optimization algorithm that optimizes the arrangement of cluster heads and base station is developed. On the other hand, based on the Bayesian inference, the uncertainty of the estimated parameters can be quantified. The coefficient of variance of the estimated parameters can be obtained, which is utilized as a holistic measure to evaluate the estimation accuracy of sensor configurations with multi-type of sensors. The proposed method provides the optimal wireless sensor network configuration that satisfies the required estimation accuracy with the longest lifetime. The proposed method is illustrated by designing the optimal wireless sensor network configuration of a cable-stayed bridge and a space truss.