Development of a High-Sensitivity Wireless Accelerometer for Structural Health Monitoring
by
Li Zhu 1, Yuguang Fu 2, Raymond Chow 3, Billie F. Spencer 4,*, Jong Woong Park 5 and Kirill Mechitov 6
Li Zhu 1, Yuguang Fu 2, Raymond Chow 3, Billie F. Spencer 4,*, Jong Woong Park 5 and Kirill Mechitov 6
1
School of Civil Engineering, Beijing Jiaotong University, Beijing 100044, China
2
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801, USA
3
Epson Electronics America, San Jose, CA 95112, USA
4
Anne M. and Nathan M. Endowed Chair in Civil Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801, USA
5
School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Urban Design and Studies, Chung-Ang University, Seoul 06974, Korea
6
Department of Computer Science, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801, USA
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Sensors 2018, 18(1), 262; https://doi.org/10.3390/s18010262
Received: 16 December 2017 / Revised: 12 January 2018 / Accepted: 12 January 2018 / Published: 17 January 2018
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sensors and Sensor Networks for Structural Health Monitoring)
Structural health monitoring (SHM) is playing an increasingly important role in ensuring the safety of structures. A shift of SHM research away from traditional wired methods toward the use of wireless smart sensors (WSS) has been motivated by the attractive features of wireless smart sensor networks (WSSN). The progress achieved in Micro Electro-Mechanical System (MEMS) technologies and wireless data transmission, has extended the effectiveness and range of applicability of WSSNs. One of the most common sensors employed in SHM strategies is the accelerometer; however, most accelerometers in WSS nodes have inadequate resolution for measurement of the typical accelerations found in many SHM applications. In this study, a high-resolution and low-noise tri-axial digital MEMS accelerometer is incorporated in a next-generation WSS platform, the Xnode. In addition to meeting the acceleration sensing demands of large-scale civil infrastructure applications, this new WSS node provides powerful hardware and a robust software framework to enable edge computing that can deliver actionable information. Hardware and software integration challenges are presented, and the associate resolutions are discussed. The performance of the wireless accelerometer is demonstrated experimentally through comparison with high-sensitivity wired accelerometers. This new high-sensitivity wireless accelerometer will extend the use of WSSN to a broader class of SHM applications.
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MDPI and ACS Style
Zhu, L.; Fu, Y.; Chow, R.; Spencer, B.F.; Park, J.W.; Mechitov, K. Development of a High-Sensitivity Wireless Accelerometer for Structural Health Monitoring. Sensors 2018, 18, 262.
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