First results from the development of a sensing system for bridge construction

Abstract

This paper describes the first version of a sensing system for monitoring movable scaffolding systems, an equipment used for the construction of large multi-span viaducts. This research project involves BERD, a company that provides innovative solutions for bridge construction and CONSTRUCT-ViBest, a research group of FEUP, responsible for the development of sensors. This project has the following main objectives: i) development of a monitoring system including strain gauges, temperature sensors and accelerometers; ii) development of data processing techniques to extract useful information from the collected data; iii) development of an user interface tool to present relevant results and allow the user to take decisions at different stages of the bridge construction process. The focus of this document goes to the first part of this project, where the architecture of the developed data acquisition system is detailed. The main concern was to use wireless, compact, autonomous, and robust solutions. The efficiency of the developed monitoring system is demonstrated with the results of the first in-situ measurements and tests. (c) 2021 International Conference on Structural Health Monitoring of Intelligent Infrastructure: Transferring Research into Practice, SHMII. All rights reserved.