Field Implementation of Wireless Vibration Sensing System for Monitoring of Harbor Caisson Breakwaters

Abstract

A wireless sensing system for structural health monitoring (SHM) of harbor caisson structures is presented. To achieve the objective, the following approaches were implemented. First, a wave-induced vibration sensing system was designed for global structural health monitoring. Second, global SHM methods which are suitable for damage monitoring of caisson structures were selected to alarm the occurrence of unwanted behaviors. Third, an SHM scheme was designed for the target structure by implementing the selected SHM methods. Operation logics of the SHM methods were programmed based on the concept of the wireless sensor network. Finally, the performance of the proposed system was globally evaluated for a field harbor caisson structure for which a series of tasks were experimentally performed by the wireless sensing system.