Session: 05-01 Smart Sensors for SHM

Paper Number: 164199

164199 - Building Health Monitoring to Increase Safety and Reduce Risk 

Monitoring buildings and their surroundings for safety has become increasingly newsworthy since the 2021 Surfside condominium collapse which caused damages exceeding a billion dollars. Both old and new high-rise constructions present unique risks and can affect large numbers of people. Smart structures are common discussion topics for new building construction; however, we have trillions of dollars in existing high-rise buildings which are not addressed by that topic, and which have a rapidly increasing impact on our national economy. Insurance, productivity, and public safety are all greatly impacted by this issue. NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology) will soon release a major report with significant ramifications for local ordinance, insurance carriers, and building owners.

Building safety can be challenging to implement, but the Internet of Things and the power of cellular communication coupled with modern sensors can address our needs. BHM (Building Health Monitoring) and early warning technology are based on geophysical sensors, methods, and interpretations. Coupling these data with intelligent operating systems and smartphone apps (mobile application software) for alerting can supply the needed framework to effectively monitor building safety and supply real-time alerts to the appropriate citizens and first responders. This can be cost-effectively accomplished for our older high-rise structures to extend their lives, reduce the cost of insurance and, most importantly, improve the safety of everyone involved.

Data management is a key component, and early warning levels can be implemented, according to rules-based threshold values, from a sensing network’s data. These can be calibrated during experiments to determine alert thresholds and can be improved over time using artificial intelligence reviews of data. Specific people to be notified can be identified using standard emergency response planning procedures. Businesses and individuals build notification profiles and protocols which are managed by an intelligent control system so they can be automatically notified when specified/selected data thresholds are encountered. Additional geophysical evaluations may be incorporated to address prior, or event-driven structural issues, or provide more granular data.

To create a monitoring network of the type envisioned, passive off-the-shelf sensors with a preprogrammed network and database were employed. These sensors were limited to humidity, air pressure, and temperature but demonstrated the ease with which a network of low-cost wireless sensors can be placed to provide data inputs for use as triggers in alert notification processes. Modern geophysical methods allow for randomly distributed sensors and sources, which lends itself to interpretation for buildings. Sensors for monitoring vibration and displacement can be incorporated with little difficulty, relying on smart sensor technology and best practices. These data can be used to monitor differential health of a building over time, and to alert appropriate entities when emergency situations are occurring, or are imminent.

Passive monitoring using classic sensors is insufficient for BHM without more granular information about the structure. These data needs can be supplied by acquisition of elevation, thermal, multispectral, resistivity, radar, and acoustic data. These can serve as baselines for monitoring and building health evaluations. Existing methods and equipment for these approaches are readily and inexpensively available. Smart sensors will expand our capabilities even further by using materials such as Shape Memory Alloys to create devices which can serve as active sources and for passive acquisition. This presentation will review the state of the art in Smart Sensors and Systems for BHM which can provide capabilities such as mitigation of an imminent building issue by continuously scanning incoming data, identifying data value thresholds, generating a directed source signal to evaluate a potential structural issue, recovering and processing data, and reporting or alerting.

Presenting Author: Steve Adcock Vector Ring, LLC

Presenting Author Biography: Steve received a BS in Physics, a BS in Geology, and an MS in geophysics. He is a professional geophysicist with a successful career in oil and gas exploration and consults through his business Resource Evaluations. He is a recipient of the 2013 engineering award, Spirit of ECC. He researches shape memory alloy sensors and actuators in his business, Vector Ring, and has been awarded a US patent for an industrial clamp based on this technology. A focus of both businesses is urban structural and building health monitoring, which incorporates his skill sets in material science, smart material sensors and actuators, drone surveying, and geophysical methods. He teaches short courses on BHM, Smart Materials, Shape Memory Alloys, and SMASIS design.