• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.24 no.5
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• pp.587-595
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• 2019

Deformation measurement of large scale structures, such as the ground beds of high-rise buildings, tunnels, bridge, and railways, are important for insuring service quality and safety. The pose-relay videometrics method and displacement-relay videometrics method have already presented to measure the pose of non-intervisible objects and vertical subsidence of unstable areas, respectively. Both methods combine the cameras and cooperative markers to form the camera series networks. Based on these two networks, we propose two novel videometrics methods with closed-loop camera series network for deformation measurement of large scale structures. The closed-loop camera series network offers "closed-loop constraints" for the camera series network: the deformation of the reference points observed by different measurement stations is identical. The closed-loop constraints improve the measurement accuracy using camera series network. Furthermore, multiple closed-loops and the flexible combination of camera series network are introduced to facilitate more complex deformation measurement tasks. Simulated results show that the closed-loop constraints can enhance the measurement accuracy of camera series network effectively.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.475-490
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• 2019

The detection of structural damage without a priori information on the healthy state is challenging. In order to address the issue, the study presents a baseline-free approach to detect damage in beam structures based on an actual influence line. In particular, a multi-segment function-fitting calculation is developed to extract the actual deflection influence line (DIL) of a damaged beam from bridge responses due to a passing vehicle. An intact basis function based on the measurement position is introduced. The damage index is defined as the difference between the actual DIL and a constructed function related to the intact basis, and the damage location is indicated based on the local peak value of the damage index curve. The damage basis function is formulated by using the detected damage location. Based on the intact and damage basis functions, damage severity is quantified by fitting the actual DIL using the least-square calculation. Both numerical and experimental examples are provided to investigate the feasibility of the proposed method. The results indicate that the present baseline-free approach is effective in detecting the damage of beam structures.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.427-434
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• 2019

This study investigates the structural integrity of the amphibious tour bus under the rollover condition. The multi-purpose bus called Dual Mode Tour Bus (DMTB) which explores on land and water has been designed on top of a truck platform. Prior to the fabrication of new upper body and sailing equipment of DMTB, computational analysis investigates the rollover protection of the proposed structure including superstructure, wheels, and axles. The Computer-Aided Design (CAD) of the whole vehicle model is meshed and preprocessed under high performance using the Altair HyperMesh to attain the best mesh model suited for finite element analysis (FEA) on the proposed system. Meanwhile, the numerical model is analyzed by employing LS-DYNA to evaluate the superstructure strength. The numerical model includes detail information about the microstructure and considers wheels and axles as rigid bodies but excludes window glasses, seats, and interior parts. Based on the simulation analysis and proper modifications especially on the rear portion of the bus, the local stiffness significantly increased. The vehicle is rotated to the contact point on the ground based on the mathematical method presented in this study to save computational cost. The results show that the proposed method of rollover analysis is highly significant not only in bus rollover tests but in crashworthiness studies for other application. The critical impartments in our suggested dual-purpose bus accepted and passed "Economic Commission for Europe (ECE) R66".

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.127-140
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• 2006

In this study, a wavelet-based covariance-driven system identification technique is proposed for damage assessment of structures under ambient excitation. Assuming the ambient excitation to be a white-noise process, the covariance computation is shown to be able to separate the effect of random excitation from the response measurement. Wavelet transform (WT) is then used to convert the covariance response in the time domain to the WT magnitude plot in the time-scale plane. The wavelet coefficients along the curves where energy concentrated are extracted and used to estimate the modal properties of the structure. These modal property estimations lead to the calculation of the stiffness matrix when either the spectral density of the random loading or the mass matrix is given. The predicted stiffness matrix hence provides a direct assessment on the possible location and severity of damage which results in stiffness alteration. To demonstrate the proposed wavelet-based damage assessment technique, a numerical example on a 3 degree-of-freedom (DOF) system and an experimental study on a three-story building model, which are all under a broad-band excitation, are presented. Both numerical and experimental results illustrate that the proposed technique can provide an accurate assessment on the damage location. It is however noted that the assessment of damage severity is not as accurate, which might be due to the errors associated with the mode shape estimations as well as the assumption of proportional damping adopted in the formulation.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.191-207
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• 2015

Proper placement of sensors plays a key role in construction and implementation of an effective structural health monitoring (SHM) system. This paper proposes a novel methodology called the distributed monkey algorithm (DMA) for the optimum design of SHM system sensor arrays. Different from the existing algorithms, the dual-structure coding method is adopted for the representation of design variables and the single large population is partitioned into subsets and each subpopulation searches the space in different directions separately, leading to quicker convergence and higher searching capability. After the personal areas of all subpopulations have been finished, the initial optimal solutions in every subpopulation are extracted and reordered into a new subpopulation, and the harmony search algorithm (HSA) is incorporated to find the final optimal solution. A computational case of a high-rise building has been implemented to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method. Investigations have clearly suggested that the proposed DMA is simple in concept, few in parameters, easy in implementation, and could generate sensor configurations superior to other conventional algorithms both in terms of generating optimal solutions as well as faster convergence.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.1-26
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• 2015

Minimizing construction cost and reducing seismic damage are two conflicting objectives in the design of any new structure. In the present work, we try to develop a framework in order to solve the optimum performance-based design problem considering the construction cost and the seismic damage of steel moment-frame structures. The Park-Ang damage index is selected as the seismic damage measure because it is one of the most realistic measures of structural damage. The non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm (NSGA-II) is employed as the optimization algorithm to search the Pareto optimal solutions. To improve the time efficiency of the proposed framework, three simplifying strategies are adopted: first, simplified nonlinear modeling investigating minimum level of structural modeling sophistication; second, fitness approximation decreasing the number of fitness function evaluations; third, wavelet decomposition of earthquake record decreasing the number of acceleration points involved in time-history loading. The constraints of the optimization problem are considered in accordance with Federal Emergency Management Agency's (FEMA) recommended seismic design specifications. The results from numerical application of the proposed framework demonstrate the efficiency of the framework in solving the present multi-objective optimization problem.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.169-189
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• 2015

Convergence difficulty and available complete measurement information have been considered as two primary challenges for the identification of large-scale engineering structures. In this paper, a time domain substructural identification approach by combining a weighted adaptive iteration (WAI) algorithm and an extended Kalman filter method with a weighted global iteration (EFK-WGI) algorithm was proposed for simultaneous identification of physical parameters of concerned substructures and unknown external excitations applied on it with limited response measurements. In the proposed approach, according to the location of the unknown dynamic loadings and the partially available structural response measurements, part of structural parameters of the concerned substructure and the unknown loadings were first identified with the WAI approach. The remaining physical parameters of the concerned substructure were then determined by EFK-WGI basing on the previously identified loadings and substructural parameters. The efficiency and accuracy of the proposed approach was demonstrated via a 20-story shear building structure and 23 degrees of freedom (DOFs) planar truss model with unknown external excitation and limited observations. Results show that the proposed approach is capable of satisfactorily identifying both the substructural parameters and unknown loading within limited iterations when both the excitation and dynamic response are partially unknown.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.41-55
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• 2015

This study proposes a laser based impedance measurement system and impedance based pipe corrosion and bolt-loosening monitoring techniques under temperature variations. For impedance measurement, the laser based impedance measurement system is optimized and adopted in this paper. First, a modulated laser beam is radiated to a photodiode, converting the laser beam into an electric signal. Then, the electric signal is applied to a MFC transducer attached on a target structure for ultrasonic excitation. The corresponding impedance signals are measured, re-converted into a laser beam, and radiated back to the other photodiode located in a data interrogator. The transmitted impedance signals are treated with an outlier analysis using generalized extreme value (GEV) statistics to reliably signal off structural damage. Validation of the proposed technique is carried out to detect corrosion and bolt-loosening in lab-scale carbon steel elbow pipes under varying temperatures. It has been demonstrated that the proposed technique has a potential to be used for structural health monitoring (SHM) of pipe structures.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.9 no.6
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• pp.535-547
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• 2012

Controlling the balance of motion in a context involving a biped robot navigating a rugged surface or a step is a difficult task. In the present study, a $3{\times}5$ flexible piezoelectric tactile sensor array is developed to provide a foot pressure map and zero moment point for a biped robot. We introduce an innovative concept involving structural electrodes on a piezoelectric film in order to improve the sensitivity. The tactile sensor consists of a polymer piezoelectric film, PVDF, between two patterned flexible print circuit substrates (FPC). Additionally, a silicon rubber bump-like structure is attached to the FPC and covered by a polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) layer. Experimental results show that the output signal of the sensor exhibits a linear behavior within 0.2 N ~ 9 N, while its sensitivity is approximately 42 mV/N. According to the characteristic of the tactile sensor, the readout module is designed for an in-situ display of the pressure magnitudes and distribution within $3{\times}5$ taxels. Furthermore, the trajectory of the zero moment point (ZMP) can also be calculated by this program. Consequently, our tactile sensor module can provide the pressure map and ZMP information to the in-situ feedback to control the balance of moment for a biped robot.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.6 no.5_6
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• pp.689-709
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• 2010

In this paper, a low cost, low power but multifunctional wireless sensor node is presented for the impedance-based SHM using piezoelectric sensors. Firstly, a miniaturized impedance measuring chip device is utilized for low cost and low power structural excitation/sensing. Then, structural damage detection/sensor self-diagnosis algorithms are embedded on the on-board microcontroller. This sensor node uses the power harvested from the solar energy to measure and analyze the impedance data. Simultaneously it monitors temperature on the structure near the piezoelectric sensor and battery power consumption. The wireless sensor node is based on the TinyOS platform for operation, and users can take MATLAB$^{(R)}$ interface for the control of the sensor node through serial communication. In order to validate the performance of this multifunctional wireless impedance sensor node, a series of experimental studies have been carried out for detecting loose bolts and crack damages on lab-scale steel structural members as well as on real steel bridge and building structures. It has been found that the proposed sensor nodes can be effectively used for local wireless health monitoring of structural components and for constructing a low-cost and multifunctional SHM system as "place and forget" wireless sensors.