Innovative Signal Analysis Techinques for Health Monitoring Systems and Sensing Materials

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One important link in the health monitoring system is the data processing techniques, including the corresponding theory and algorithms, to extract relevant information for a rapid assessment of the state of the structure from a large amount of measured data. Such a link has been pointed out during many conferences as one of the weakest link in the sensor-based health monitoring system of civil infrastructures. This project is aiming at the development of innovative and efficient data processing techniques, based on the Hilbert-Huang spectral analysis, for the damage detection, condition assessment and integrity evaluation of civil infrastructures. New and efficient methodologies will be developed for: (i) damage detection and system identification of linear structures, (ii) determination of the optimal placement of sensors, (iii) damage detection and system identification of nonlinear structures, including conservative (elastic) and nonconservative (hysteretic) nonlinear structures, and (iv) preliminary assessment of structural damages after an extreme event, such as strong earthquakes, all based on the Hilbert-Huang spectral analysis. Further, Hilbert-Huang spectral analysis computer software modules for incorporating into the sensor-based monitoring systems of civil infrastructures will be developed.This proposal is a part of an integrated collaborative research effort among U.S.A., Hong Kong and P.R.C., under the US-China Protocol for Scientific and Technical Cooperative Research on Earthquake Engineering and Hazard Mitigation. Basically, advanced health monitoring system research for civil infrastructure systems will be conducted at Hong Kong Polytechnic University (HPU); advanced sensor technology will be developed at Harbin Institute of Technology (HIT), China; sensing materials for sensors will be investigated at Institute of Engineering Mechanics (IEM), China; advanced and smart damping and devices will be developed at University of Notre Dame (UND); and novel data processing techniques will be developed at the University of California, Irvine (UCI). In addition, Dr. N. E. Huang of NASA Goddard Flight Center, who is the pioneer of the Hilbert-Huang spectral analysis, will collaborate with us in the proposed research efforts to develop novel data processing techniques for sensor-based monitoring systems for civil infrastructures.The research proposed herein is unique, which is different from all the data analysis techniques currently available. The Hilbert-Huang spectral analysis can be used to develop powerful techniques with which intrinsic nonstationary and nonlinear characteristics of the measured response signals can be extracted. The results of this research are expected to have a significant impact not only on the state-of-the-technology in data analyses for the sensor-based health monitoring systems of structures but also on the sensor technologies to be developed by the collaborative research institutions in U.S.A., Hong Kong and China.