Measuring the Natural Frequencies of Bridges by Wireless Sensors to Monitor Foundation Scouring
Journal
IEEE Instrumentation and Measurement Magazine
Journal Volume
27
Journal Issue
5
Start Page
22
End Page
29
ISSN
10946969
Date Issued
2024
Author(s)
Abstract
As climate change becomes more severe, infrastructure is being damaged more by extreme weather. In particular, extreme rainstorms are occurring more often and are scouring the foundations of bridges, seriously affecting their safety. Unlike traditional wired or underwater measuring instruments, in the study reported here, a wireless sensing instrument was used to measure bridge ambient vibration to avoid the device being destroyed during typhoon season. The wireless sensing instrument uses an accelerometer, an open-source Arduino Uno microcontroller board, and XBee wireless transmission module for data collection and transmission. MATLAB is used for the subsequent data processing, including digital filtering and identifying the natural frequency of the bridge using the short-time Fourier transform cumulate along time sequence (STFTCATS) method that identifies time-varying signal characteristics. This study confirms that it is better to measure on the deck slab rather than on a pile cap. The results show that it is feasible to measure the natural frequencies of bridges with wireless sensing instruments, and that bridge scouring could be monitored in this way in the future.
Publisher
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.
Type
journal article