Design, Development, and Laboratory Validation of a Low-Cost Multi-Sensor System for Bridge Structural Health Monitoring with Scour-Related Environmental Sensing.

Authors

Matilde Bidone, Mauro Aimar, Marco Civera, Alessio Carullo, Alberto Vallan

Published in

Sensors (Basel, Switzerland). Volume 26. Issue 18. Sep 20, 2026. Epub Sep 20, 2026.

Abstract

This paper reports the design, development and laboratory validation of a low-cost multi-sensor system for bridge Structural Health Monitoring with complementary scour-related environmental sensing. The proposed sensing apparatus is intended for continuous dynamic (vibration-based) and quasi-static structural monitoring, in particular for bridge applications. It employs a distributed wired architecture comprising two custom printed circuit boards, BridgeWatch and EnvironMonitor. BridgeWatch nodes integrate MEMS accelerometers and gyroscopes, enabling acceleration measurements, quasi-static inclination estimates from gravity components, angular-rate measurements and structural surface-temperature acquisition. The EnvironMonitor node acquires wind, rainfall, air temperature, humidity and bridge water level; these variables provide environmental and hydrological context relevant to scour risk, without directly measuring riverbed elevation or scour depth. A Raspberry Pi coordinates acquisition, synchronisation and communication through RS485 and RS232 links. The hardware was implemented through custom PCB design and dedicated firmware. The principal contribution is the system-level integration of structural and environmental measurements in one open architecture. Laboratory validation comprised communication and synchronisation checks, shaker tests, a scaled structural benchmark, climatic-cell tests and environmental-input simulations. The results demonstrate functional acquisition and relevant dynamic-feature extraction under controlled conditions. These outcomes enable future full-scale in situ validation and testing on full-size case studies.

PMID:
42817564
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 01 Oct 2026.

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