Physics-based wireless structural health monitoring and control using temporal finite elements

Integrating structural control into wireless structural health monitoring systems typically entails implementing control algorithms that predict counteracting forces for keeping the structural response within acceptable bounds. Control algorithms usually involve data-driven analysis, implemented in wireless sensor networks as feedback-loop systems. Although effective, data-driven analysis for structural control hardly accounts for the physics underlying the structural behavior. In an attempt to implement structural control in an intuitive manner for engineers, this work suggests an embedded structural control method that builds upon physics-based modeling, using the finite element method for analysis. In particular, the proposed physics-based wireless structural health monitoring and control (SHMC) method bases the prediction of control forces on temporal finite elements (TFE), which integrate the time dimension into the well-known FE spatial shape functions. Prior to embedment, the TFE models are reduced to (i) decrease the computational burden on the sensor nodes and (ii) match the discretization of the TFE models with the degrees of freedom measured by the SHMC system. The proposed SHMC method is implemented in a prototype wireless SHMC system and validated in laboratory tests on a model frame structure mounted on a shake table. The results showcase the capability of the physics-based wireless SHMC method to retain the structural response within previously defined bounds.

Subjects

Structural control

structural health monitoring

wireless sensor networks

finite element modeling

temporal finite elements

embedded computing

DDC Class

690: Building, Construction

Funding(s)

Dezentrale digitale Zwillinge für das Bauwerksmonitoring

Options

Physics-based wireless structural health monitoring and control using temporal finite elements