Smartphone-Based Bridge Seismic Monitoring System and Long-Term Field Application Tests

Abstract

In this study, a bridge seismic monitoring system was developed based on smartphones connected together in the same project as a sensor network using a cloud server for easy upload and access to data. Thus, a decentralized structural seismic monitoring network was established using easy-to-install smartphones as both sensing cells and intelligence neurons. A long-term field test of this system was performed on Japan’s Takamatsu bridge. Smartphones with the monitoring application were deployed at six different locations inside the bridge’s concrete box girder. The system was connected to a cloud server for real-time data uploading and remote control. Inconsistent sampling rates and faulty sensor readings were identified to be two major problems with the use of the proposed system; however, correction methods were also proposed accordingly. A few seismic acceleration response records of the Takamatsu bridge were captured during the more than one-year operation period. Dynamic properties extracted from this system were compared with those of reference seismometers to verify its viability and accuracy.