Vibration-based Structural Health Monitoring System for Bridges using ADXL345 Accelerometer with MATLAB Standalone Application

The study designed a Vibration-based Structural Health Monitoring (VBSHM) using ADXL345 accelerometer with a wireless sensor network using radio frequency module to detect crack and monitor status of bridge in order to prevent catastrophic failures. A microcontroller ATmega2560 Arduino controls the activities of the system and a real time clock module was added for time synchronization. MATLAB standalone application was built for analyzation and data recording. The researchers used three sensor nodes as the primary device of the system and base station for data monitoring. To test the functionality and reliability of the system, the researchers used three miniature bridges. At 100 hertz the bridges were tested under two factors, the intensity of crack and strength of vibration. A two-way ANOVA was used to analyze the effect of the factors on the readings of the system. The output shows intensities of crack and strength of vibration has a significant effect on the readings.