Cost-effective Rehabilitation of Civil Infrastructure using Limited Sensors

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Even the best-designed, most carefully built structures, such as buildings and bridges, eventually weaken. Whether a structure fails over time due to environmental conditions or use, or suddenly, because of a natural disaster such as an earthquake or strong wind, failure has significant human and societal consequences. Detecting damage while a structure is in use both helps avoid safety risks and minimizes the economic costs of suspending access to assess damage. Recently, vibration based damage detection (VBDD) methods, an offshoot of structural health monitoring, have shown promise in efforts to rehabilitate civil infrastructure. In VBDD, the presence of damage and its severity in a structure is assessed through detecting unusual symptoms in vibration measurements, and then rehabilitation is undertaken using appropriate decision making tools. However, because of the high cost of sensors and their installation issues, it is not always feasible to install sensors at every critical location in a large-scale structure. The proposed research will develop smart and cost-effective technology to perform early damage diagnosis and rehabilitation using limited numbers of vibration sensors.