SHM and NDT techniques at IFSTTAR; applications on Civil Engineering structures monitoring. Challenges and new trends on wireless, smart and embedded sensors
Résumé
IFSTTAR represents the French national research institute on civil engineering structures
transportation equipments from their design to their maintenance. Structural Health Monitoring is
understood as the way to monitor strategic structures (bridges, tunnels, railways, power plant, etc.)
to improve their capacities, to better understand and predict their behaviour (collapse/ failure,
maintenance, specific works…).
Hand by hand with structures managers, IFSTTAR produces SHM solutions that consists, most of
the time, in a sum of technical device (sensors, acquisition equipment…) added to specific
algorithms and knowledge. Several of those NDT / SHM techniques will be detailed in following
presentation : acoustic monitoring of cable, Fiber Optic as embeded sensor, Modal analysis
monitoring, ...
In particular, the topic of Wireless and Smart Sensors Networks is subject of many research and
developments to make it possible to easily deploy numerous sensors on civil structures where
distances are quite long and for wich full wired instrumentations represent a source of cost and
disturbances. The other goal is to bring closer data sampling to data processing; reducing the
amount of produced data to be computed at central Supervision level. Even if related electronic
technologies have made great advances those last years regarding: energy consuming and energy
harvesting, integration, MEMs and nano sensors, wireless protocoles, etc., many challenges still
have to be adressed or performed in Wireless Sensor world.
IFSTTAR Wireless knowledge will be presented trough its PEGASE platform ( a generic wireless
acquisition system) and some praticals applications of this platform applied in SHM use-cases.
Among others, new trends and challenges in WSN for SHM on which Ifsttar keep an eye on, will be
mentioned:
specifically the need of solutions to make data moving from a local WSN netwotk (i.e.
LAN) to internet (WAN)
challenge of Wireless sensors synchronization. As far as most of collected data in the world
have to be time-stamped to be computed by models, the question is how to get a common
time-base in a wireless network of sensors ?
Lifetime of electronic devices vs lifetime of structures to be monitored: how to face
elecronic aging (battery, quartz..) ? How to ensure a self-control ?
Does emerging Big data represent an opportunity or a weakness for structures managers ?
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