Validation of a wireless traffic vibration monitoring system for the Voigt Bridge

Recently, a variety of wireless structural health monitoring systems have been demonstrated as viable substitutes for traditional high-cost tethered monitoring systems. In this study, a prototype wireless sensing system is deployed upon the Voigt Bridge (La Jolla, CA) to validate its performance against a cabled monitoring system. Using 20 wireless sensors deployed over two spans of the bridge superstructure, acceleration time histories and their corresponding Fourier transforms collected from traffic-induced vibration suggest excellent correlation with those obtained from the tethered system. Embedded data processing is highlighted in this study with operational deflection shapes of the bridge identified by the wireless sensor network using embedded peak picking algorithms. Along with the cabled monitoring system is a video camera installed to continuously record bridge traffic. Video streams allow the input to the structural system to be quantified and directly linked to the output bridge response.