• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.12 no.3_4
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• pp.363-379
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• 2013

Dynamic displacement of structures is an important index for in-service structural condition and behavior assessment, but accurate measurement of structural displacement for large-scale civil structures such as long-span bridges still remains as a challenging task. In this paper, a vision-based dynamic displacement measurement system with the use of digital image processing technology is developed, which is featured by its distinctive characteristics in non-contact, long-distance, and high-precision structural displacement measurement. The hardware of this system is mainly composed of a high-resolution industrial CCD (charge-coupled-device) digital camera and an extended-range zoom lens. Through continuously tracing and identifying a target on the structure, the structural displacement is derived through cross-correlation analysis between the predefined pattern and the captured digital images with the aid of a pattern matching algorithm. To validate the developed system, MTS tests of sinusoidal motions under different vibration frequencies and amplitudes and shaking table tests with different excitations (the El-Centro earthquake wave and a sinusoidal motion) are carried out. Additionally, in-situ verification experiments are performed to measure the mid-span vertical displacement of the suspension Tsing Ma Bridge in the operational condition and the cable-stayed Stonecutters Bridge during loading tests. The obtained results show that the developed system exhibits an excellent capability in real-time measurement of structural displacement and can serve as a good complement to the traditional sensors.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.133-137
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• 2018

Increasing interest in prognostics and health management has heightened the need for wireless sensor networks (WSN) with efficient power sources. Piezoelectric energy harvesters using Pb(Zr,Ti)O3 (PZT) are one of the candidate power sources for WSNs as they efficiently convert mechanical vibration energy into electrical energy. These types of devices are resonated at a specific frequency, which has a significant impact on the amount of energy harvested, by external vibration. Hence, precise prediction of mechanical deformation including modal analysis of piezoelectric devices is crucial for estimating the energy generated under specific conditions. In this study, an experimental vibrational system capable of controlling a wide range of frequencies and accelerations was designed to generate mechanical vibration for piezoelectric energy harvesters. In conjunction with MATLAB, the system automatically finds the resonance frequency of harvesters. A small accelerometer and non-contact laser displacement sensor are employed to investigate the mechanical deformation of harvesters. Mechanical deformation under various frequencies and accelerations were investigated and analyzed based on data from two types of sensors. The results verify that the proposed system can be employed to carry out vibration experiments for piezoelectric harvesters and measurement of their mechanical deformation.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.58-66
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• 2023

In this study, cable tension was measured using the vibration method, and a vision-based system was applied as a sensor to measure the displacement response of a cable in a non-contact method. In the vision-based system, the camera is installed in a location that considers the target structure and the field of view of the camera. However, it can be difficult to recognize the control points required to measure the displacement response of a structure as the target structure and other structures such as vehicles may be included in the image at the intended installation location. In this study, a distorted image including a vehicle shows inaccurate results in image analysis due to the installation position of the vision-based system. Accordingly, the image including the vehicle was eliminated by calculating the similarity between the two images. To verify the validity of the method of estimating the cable tension of cable-stayed bridges using the proposed method, the vibration method was applied to cable-stayed bridges in service to measure the tension.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.11-19
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• 2009

Recently, concerns relating to the maintenance of large structures have been increased. In addition, the number of large structures that need to be evaluated for their structural safety due to natural disasters and structural deterioration has been rapidly increasing. It is common for the structural characteristics of an older large structure to differ from the characteristics in the initial design stage, and changes in dynamic characteristics may result from a reduction in stiffness due to cracks on the materials. The process of deterioration of such structures enables the detection of damaged locations, as well as a quantitative evaluation. One of the typical measuring instruments used for the monitoring of bridges and buildings is the dynamic measurement system. Conventional dynamic measurement systems require considerable cabling to facilitate a direct connection between sensor and DAQ logger. For this reason, a method of measuring structural responses from a remote distance without the mounted sensors is needed. In terms of non-contact methods that are applicable to dynamic response measurement, the methods using the doppler effect of a laser or a GPS are commonly used. However, such methods could not be generally applied to bridge structures because of their costs and inaccuracies. Alternatively, a method using a visual image can be economical as well as feasible for measuring vibration signals of inaccessible bridge structures and extracting their dynamic characteristics. Many studies have been conducted using camera visual signals instead of conventional mounted sensors. However, these studies have been focused on measuring displacement response by an image processing technique after recording a position of the target mounted on the structure, in which the number of measurement targets may be limited. Therefore, in this study, a model experiment was carried out to verify the measurement algorithm for measuring multi-point displacement responses by using a DIC (Digital Image Correlation) technique.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.30 no.3A
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• pp.297-307
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• 2010

Recently, maintenance engineering and technology for civil and building structures have begun to draw big attention and actually the number of structures that need to be evaluate on structural safety due to deterioration and performance degradation of structures are rapidly increasing. When stiffness is decreased because of deterioration of structures and member cracks, dynamic characteristics of structures would be changed. And it is important that the damaged areas and extent of the damage are correctly evaluated by analyzing dynamic characteristics from the actual behavior of a structure. In general, typical measurement instruments used for structure monitoring are dynamic instruments. Existing dynamic instruments are not easy to obtain reliable data when the cable connecting measurement sensors and device is long, and have uneconomical for 1 to 1 connection process between each sensor and instrument. Therefore, a method without attaching sensors to measure vibration at a long range is required. The representative applicable non-contact methods to measure the vibration of structures are laser doppler effect, a method using GPS, and image processing technique. The method using laser doppler effect shows relatively high accuracy but uneconomical while the method using GPS requires expensive equipment, and has its signal's own error and limited speed of sampling rate. But the method using image signal is simple and economical, and is proper to get vibration of inaccessible structures and dynamic characteristics. Image signals of camera instead of sensors had been recently used by many researchers. But the existing method, which records a point of a target attached on a structure and then measures vibration using image processing technique, could have relatively the limited objects of measurement. Therefore, this study conducted shaking table test and field load test to verify the validity of the method that can measure multi-point displacement responses of structures using image processing technique.