Bridge Monitoring with IoT Sensors Measuring Structural Health

https://Tools.Valarm.net monitors water, air, bridges, and any other
Industrial IoT assets your organization needs to monitor.

Bridge Expansion Joints – Monitoring and Evaluating Vibrating Wire Displacement Transducers, Industrial IoT Sensor Systems and Tools.Valarm.net

Do you, your teams, and organization need to remotely monitor bridges?

How about monitoring bridge expansion joints and Vibrating Wire Displacement Transducers?

A road operator in Vienna, Austria, is monitoring bridges and expansion joints with Tools.Valarm.net.

Why? Because they need cost-effective remote monitoring systems to measure 16 sensors with various factors used for evaluating bridge expansion joints.

Each bridge monitoring system is powered by a 5 Watt solar panel and transfers hourly sensor data to Tools.Valarm.net.

All components used in this application are commercially available, but had to be properly selected to establish the desired criteria. After testing the prototype, the final design was installed on 5 different bridges along a highway route just north of Vienna, Austria. The monitoring systems measure deformation, temperature and settlement in the proximity of the expansion joints.

This road operator also needed a visualization tool to evaluate the proper openings and closings of the expansion joints. A SHM (Structural Health Monitoring) approach was deployed in order to evaluate the functionality of the expansion joints.

Structural Health Monitoring is used to detect damage and any changes to the material or structural properties. Basically, monitoring anything that could negatively affect bridge performance in order to keep you, your family, and community safe and healthy!

The monitoring systems use Industrial IoT sensor hubs, which are designed to transfer data via mobile cell networks to Tools.Valarm.net. The sensor hubs are expanded with various modules depending on the sensors readings and needs, like voltage, current or text data interfaces and sensor standards like 4-20 mA, RS-232, PWM, 0-10V, SPI, Serial, or RS-485 Modbus.

The power supply in each bridge monitoring system uses a 5W solar panel and a 4000mA battery with a charge controller. This hardware is enough to make the remote monitoring systems self-sustaining and able to stay alive indefinitely without any interaction or maintenance.

A very low energy consumption is possible since the data sampling rate is quite low – 1 sensor value measurement per hour. Between any two measurements the Internet of Things sensor hub goes into a deep sleep mode where no energy is consumed.

Vibrating Wire sensors are used to make displacement measurements which are common in civil structure monitoring, with the advantage of transferring signals in cables up to 3km without any amplification.

In this case, Vibrating Wire Displacement Transducers (Crackmeters) made by Geokon are sending their transducer measurements to Tools.Valarm.net. All components fit in a 30cm x 30cm x 15cm box, which is very easily installed on the abutment of the bridge.

All transferred sensor data are automatically downloaded by the road operator and evaluated in an application doing the data cleansing, data processing, and correlation of bridge temperature versus displacements.

The regression model you see in this article clearly describes the functionality and deviations over time. The road operator then makes valid, appropriate conclusions about the optimal operation of the bridge expansion joints. This helps clients and customers to plan out the most effective maintenance program for the health and safety of organizations, citizens, and communities.

Want more? Take a gander at this Industrial IoT use case / case study where we work with the California Government Department of Water Resources (DWR) and other organizations to remotely monitor levees with vibrating wires / piezometers.

Have a look at our Customer Stories page for more examples of how Tools.Valarm.net is used by various industries to monitor things like:
Flood Warning Systems Monitoring Water Levels, Storm Surges, Coastal Flood Monitoring Solutions, and Rising Tides in Smart Cities
Tank Levels and Volumes for Chemical Distribution
Water Well Flow Meters and Pressure Transducers for Water Resources Management
Remote Environmental Monitoring

Since Tools.Valarm.net is an open platform, your organization can monitor water, air, or anything else, with sensors made by any hardware manufacturer around the world, like:

Flowline
Senix
Geokon
Alphasense
Clairair
In-Situ
Campbell Scientific
Decagon / METER
McCrometer
Foxboro / Schneider Electric
Dylos
Yoctopuce
AirBeam
Vaisala
Eno Scientific

Your Industrial IoT devices connect to Valarm Tools Cloud via any internet connectivity, like 3G/4G GSM mobile cell networks, LTE, WiFi, Ethernet, LPWAN, or RPMA (Random Phase Multiple Access).

We’re happy to help your organization deploy your most effective remote monitoring systems for your specific needs.