RFID-Based Wireless Multi-Sensory System for Simultaneous Dynamic Acceleration and Strain Measurements of Civil Infrastructure

In this paper, we develop a radio frequency identification (RFID)-based wireless multi-sensory infrastructure health monitoring (IHM) system that can simultaneously measure dynamic acceleration and strain. The system consists of a novel multi-sensor integrated semi-passive ultra-high frequency (UHF) tag antenna that can be mounted on civil infrastructure elements; even made out of metal. The system is capable of measuring 3-axis dynamic acceleration and strain with spectral bandwidths of 40 Hz and 26.5 Hz, respectively. The natural frequency determination of infrastructure by the dynamic acceleration and strain measurements of the proposed system is accurate to 60 mHz. Benchmarking of the RFID-based wireless multi-sensory system is provided by comprehensive comparison of the results with measurements from a commercial wireless strain measurement system. The proposed system has 30 mHz natural frequency determination error when compared with dynamic strain measurement from the commercial system.