“MEMS based seismic and vibration sensors in Building & Structural Health Monitoring systems”

Structural Health Monitoring systems are increasingly being installed throughout the world most especially in areas vulnerable to high levels of seismic activity but also within large structures subject to sub-surface landslip, mining, or externally induced stress and vibration. Strong Motion seismic sensor technology is evolving in respond to these emerging demands with traditional Electromechanical FBAs being increasingly displaced by more cost effective, more robust Micro-electromechanical (MEMS) based sensors. Barriers to accelerating the rate of adoption of SHM systems are varied but include product marketing, the ability to offer a true value proposition, improvements in value for money dominated by cost of wired installations, validation of system reliability, and more simply user friendly interfaces to end users. Sensor costs are seen as a cost limiting factor but low power consumption, higher quality sensors remain as the key challenge today. This paper summarises the world from the point of view of manufacturers of MEMS based seismic sensors, looking upwards into the diverse number of market applications, end user demands, assessing what generic products and trends have emerged to-date and summarising a view of why MEMS technologies could dominate in the coming years. Most importantly many of these capabilities exist today in Europe and are not just the futuristic visions of some large global Corporation