Low-Cost Civil Structure Health Monitoring Using Wireless Sensor Network

  • Tousiq Wiqar Department of Computer Systems Engineering, University of Engineering and Technology Peshawar, Pakistan
  • Khurram Shehzad Khattak Department of Computer Systems Engineering, University of Engineering and Technology Peshawar, Pakistan
  • Haroon Malik Department of Computer Systems Engineering, University of Engineering and Technology Peshawar, Pakistan
  • Zawar Hussain Khan Electrical Engineering Department, University of Engineering and Technology Peshawar, Pakistan
Keywords: Structural health monitoring, NodeMCU, Sensors, Amazon Web Services, Internet of Things

Abstract

This research presents a low-cost, real-time, reliable, and scalable solution for Structural Health Monitoring.
(SHM) using an IoT-based multi-node system. The study's objective is to detect and identify damages timely and
weaknesses in civil structures such as bridges, buildings, and dams, which environmental factors, overuse, or natural phenomena may cause. Each sensor node, fabricated using NodeMCU, is equipped with sensors for measuring vibration, shock, tilt, strain, humidity, and temperature. The data collected by multiple sensor nodes is transmitted to Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud platform via Wi-Fi and analyzed for damage detection and predictive maintenance. The field testing on a pedestrian steel bridge showed over 99% success in data transmission with a frequency of 1 second per reading, resulting in 18,000 readings over 5 hours. With a fabrication cost of $40 per sensor node and scalable AWS resources, the proposed solution is highly scalable and can operate for 15 days without human intervention. 

Published
2023-02-09
How to Cite
[1]
T. Wiqar, K. Khattak, H. Malik, and Z. Khan, “Low-Cost Civil Structure Health Monitoring Using Wireless Sensor Network”, PakJET, vol. 6, no. 1, pp. 34-41, Feb. 2023.