The construction sector is not always open to new ideas and most of the times prefer to use old and outdated methods that they can understand. There are additional costs when installing innovative monitoring systems in a structure and for these systems to be accepted they have to prove themselves worthy. This research will show the advantages and disadvantages of using wireless sensors to build a structural health monitoring system as well as provide a comparison between the different architectures that are used nowadays.
It will also be developed and implemented a wireless sensor system capable of measuring useful data for structural studies. This equipment will be tested and the results discussed giving the reader an understanding of the applicability of the solution proposed.
The main goals of this thesis can be gathered in the following list:
This project aims also to determine the main requirements of a Structural Health Monitoring system. It is important to understand the needs and concerns of the Civil Engineers regarding the infrastructures they are trying to study. Only in this way it is possible to develop a system that can be used in different types of buildings.
In order to achieve all these objectives a project plan has been designed. The first stage of this research is to understand the Civionics concept as so the starting point of this project is the review of literature that focuses this field of studies.
Next it is necessary to make a technological state of art revision. This way it is possible to indentify the progress that has been made and the path that this project should take. Afterwards the requirements of a particular application have to be defined. In this part the discussion and conversation with Civil Engineers that work with structures is fundamental.
With all the requirements defined a concept design is made. When this design as the approval of all the people involved the implementation phase can begin. It is important to test all the subsystems and validate all the solutions proposed. At the end the monitoring system should be tested in a bridge that connects the University to the canteen.
