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Structural health monitoring in industry

Home » Structural health monitoring in industry

The structural health monitoring solution in industrial facilities allows monitoring metal structures in which special attention should be paid to the appearance of corrosion or deformations, and concrete structures, where the focus is on the existence of possible cracks, cracks or chipping.

Real-time structural health monitoring in industry

The system includes:

  • Sensors set on strategic points along a historic structure to detect the presence and location of any damage due to earthquakes, degeneration of the cement, stone decay or the influence of pollution and tourism.
  • Their communication.
  • Their later analysis.

The monitoring system, based on IoT technology, is conducted in very short periods of time, thus providing real-time information to make the decision making quicker and closer to the moment.

Mechanical damage monitoring

Mechanical damage has their origin in external or internal structural, constructive or utilization forces.

Taking into account the present and/or future damages that can become a hazard for the stability of the buildings or cause any harm to their users, sensors are set up in the relevant points to:

  • Monitor vibrations with an accelerometer, as they can affect the behavior of the structure while operating.
  • Monitor the deviations from the vertical with an inclinometer.
  • Determine the movements of the structures by opening already existing cracks with a linear crackmeter.
  • Measure limit switches on overhead cranes with position sensors.
  • Monitor loads and pressures supported with strain gauges.

Physicochemical damage

One of the most common physical damage in industrial facilities is the appearance of humidity. Regarding chemical damage, the most known and visually evident are oxidation, corrosion, efflorescence and chemical injuries caused by living organisms (plants, insect pests, chemical attack by excrement and fungi).

With the solution for structural health monitoring of buildings, physicochemical damage can also be studied by installing a sensor network that monitors variables such as temperature, humidity, dilatations, corrosion, molds or oxides.

Data acquisition and communication system

The datalogger collects the data monitored and sends it, via internet, to an Internet service by means of M2M standard communication protocols such as REST, MQTT, which store it in a database for future references. The period for sending the data can be adjusted according to the client’s preferences.

The flexibility of the firmware displayed enables the equipment to be directly integrated with any kind of IoT platform or control center, both cloud-based and local ones, through communication protocols (format of messages, communication and transport networks, M2M networks) completely adapted to each case.

Communication with the optional communication modules at ENVIRA are wireless, with technologies such as 3g, LTE, LORA® and soon Narrow-Band.

Data display and analysis

The data collected by the sensors are transmitted to the ENVIRA DS platform, where the information can be graphicly displayed or downloaded for further analysis with other tools.

Thanks to this structural health monitoring system for industry, remote supervision is possible, the information stored can be assessed and the cracks can be acted upon with foresight. In fact, a warning system can be set up so that, in case the threshold levels or definable percentages are surpassed, a warning is sent to the users of the system by e-mail or SMS.

With this data you get:

  • Monitoring of structures and buildings in real time.
  • Establish trends in the behavior of the fissures studied.
  • Increased safety and structural integrity.
  • Detection of anomalies in time.
  • Reduction of maintenance operating costs.
  • Better preventive conservation of heritage.
  • Integration with structural reinforcement strategies.

Applications of structural monitoring in industrial facilities

This monitoring system can be applied in any type of industrial structure such as:

  • Factories
  • Bridges
  • Warehouses
  • Silos
  • Industrial hoppers
  • Crane bridges

In these structures, special attention must be paid to:

  • Cracks and fissures.
  • Rust and corrosion signals.
  • Removal of the coating on pillars, beams and slabs.
  • Loss of horizontality in beams and slabs.
  • Loss of verticality or collapse of pillars.
  • Degradation or breakage of tie rods or their anchors.

Advantages

Some of the most relevant advantages of structural health monitoring for buildings are:

Open solution, integrable with external developments at any level (device, connectivity, CLOUD or user application).

An unlimited number of devices can be included in future extensions.

High-reliable and available data in real time.

Tailored system.

Complete adaptation and integration with different types of buildings.

Creation of data history.