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Bridge monitoring using wireless smart sensors

Article · January 2011

DOI: 10.1117/2.1201212.004043

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Bridge monitoring using
wireless smart sensors
Soojin Cho, Billie F. Spencer Jr., Hongki Jo, Jian Li, and Robin
E. Kim
A long-term, dense deployment of wireless smart sensors on a full-
scale bridge demonstrates the potential of the technology to monitor
civil structures.
Health is an important issue not only for human beings, but also
for civil infrastructures. Bridge collapses often result in a large
number of casualties, as well as negative social and economic
consequences, as was seen in the I-35W bridge collapse in Min-
neapolis, MN, in 2007.1 Structural health monitoring (SHM) of
civil infrastructures can mitigate problems in the same manner
as routine medical screening can ward off illness.
Many recently constructed bridges have extensive, yet costly,
monitoring systems. For example, the total cost of the mon-
itoring system on the Bill Emerson Memorial Bridge in Mis-
souri is approximately $1.3 million for 86 accelerometer channels
(D $15; 000/channel).2 This cost is not atypical of today’s wired
monitoring systems. In response to these high costs, we have de-
veloped low-cost wireless smart sensors (WSS) for continuous,
reliable SHM. Using MEMSIC Inc.’s Imote2 sensor product,3 we
established a flexible WSS framework by integrating hardware
Figure 1. Assembled wireless smart sensor node using Imote2 (left) and various structural health monitoring (SHM) sensor boards. DAQ: Data
acquisition device.
10.1117/2.1201201.004043
and software elements. The hardware delivers high-fidelity data,
and the software allows engineers to more readily realize the
potential of WSS technology (see Figure 1).
The first autonomous, full-scale wireless bridge monitoring
system was initially installed on the second Jindo Bridge in
South Korea in 2009 through a joint effort among the University
of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), the Korea Advanced
Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), and the Univer-
sity of Tokyo (see Figure 2).4, 5 Seventy-one WSS nodes with
a total of 427 sensing channels were installed on the girder,
pylons, and cables. Each node was composed of the Imote2
(including on-board CPU, radio, and power management in-
tegrated circuit), a sensor board, and a battery. We used two
types of sensor boards, 70 ISM400 sensor boards (measuring
3-axis acceleration, temperature, humidity, and light) and one
SHM-data acquisition device (SHM-DAQ) sensor board mea-
suring wind speed and direction by interfacing with a 3D
ultrasonic anemometer. Combined with the Illinois Structural
Health Monitoring Project’s Services Toolsuite,6 the nodes allow
for synchronized data collection, aggregation, synthesis, and
decision-making in real time. Based on the success of the 2009
deployment, we extended the monitoring system in 2010 to
Continued on next page
 10.1117/2.1201201.004043 Page 2/3

Figure 2. The Jindo Bridges. The second Jindo Bridge is the one to the left.

Figure 3. Sensor layout on the second Jindo Bridge with a total of 661 data channels.

include 113 WSS nodes measuring a total of 661 channels of data
(see Figure 3), resulting in the world’s largest wireless smart
sensor network for SHM to date.7 The ISM400 sensor board
is used on 98 nodes. We used a high-sensitivity accelerometer
board (SHM-H board) for 10 nodes for more accurate moni-
toring. The remaining three nodes were connected to 3D ul-
trasonic anemometers through SHM-DAQ boards to wirelessly
measure and collect the wind speed and direction on the bridge.
We used a strain sensor board in two nodes. All 113 nodes are
self–powered using solar or wind energy harvesting. The WSS
nodes can communicate in either single-hop or multi-hop ways
with two base-station computers that are remotely accessible via
the Internet. Should any anomalies in the measured data or mon-
itoring system components be detected during the autonomous
monitoring, the base-station computers can email the research
team to take appropriate action.
Continued on next page

Figure 4. The five lower vertical modal properties. At top is experimental data and at bottom is a numerical model.
The monitoring system can estimate the bridge’s various
physical states. For example, the modal properties such
as natural frequencies, mode shapes, and modal damping
ratios can be extracted from the measured accelerations
(see Figure 4 top) and used to refine the numerical model (see
Figure 4 bottom) to determine structural performance and find
possible damage locations. Cable tension force, one of the most
important integrity measures for cable-stayed bridges, is esti-
mated automatically using a vibration-based method. We also
could assess deck-cable interaction, which may cause dynamic
instability of the bridge. Aerodynamic and aeroelastic proper-
ties of bridges are estimated based on synchronized wind and
acceleration data. The measured data from the wireless moni-
toring system enables comprehensive assessment of the bridge’s
health.
The Jindo Bridge deployment demonstrates how combining
civil engineering knowledge with advancements in recent
sensor technology can provide a robust and significantly lower-
cost ($100/channel) alternative to traditional wired moni-
toring systems. Besides the bridge monitoring system, WSS
technology provides a new tool to help engineers address the
many challenges of managing our civil infrastructure. A joint
effort between MEMSIC and the University of Illinois is under-
way to develop a new WSS prototype with higher performance
and greater robustness for monitoring civil infrastructures.
The authors would like to express their appreciation to the following
individuals for their help on this manuscript: Gul Agha, Kirill Me-
chitov, Parya Moinzadeh (UIUC), Chung-Bang Yun, Hyung-Jo Jung,
Jongwoong Park (KAIST), Yozo Fujino, Tomonori Nagayama (Univer-
sity of Tokyo), Sung-Han Sim (Ulsan National Institute of Science and
Technology) and Ho-Kyung Kim (Seoul National University).
10.1117/2.1201201.004043 Page 3/3
Author Information
Soojin Cho, Billie F. Spencer Jr., Hongki Jo, Jian Li, and Robin
E. Kim
University of Illinois
Urbana-Champaign, IL
Soojin Cho, postdoctoral research associate, received his PhD
and MS in civil and environmental engineering from Korea
Advanced Institute of Science and Technology in 2011 and 2005,
respectively. In 2011, he has been working at the smart structures
technology laboratory directed by Professor Billie F. Spencer Jr.
Billie F. Spencer Jr. is Nathan M. and Anne M. Newmark
Endowed Chair in Civil Engineering, as well as professor and
director of the smart structures technology laboratory.
Hongki Jo, Jian Lie, and Robin E. Kim are all PhDs and graduate
research assistants in the smart structures technology laboratory.
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