An experimental study for decentralized damage detection using wireless sensor networks

![CDATA[This paper addresses the issue of reliability and accuracy in wireless sensor network (WSN) based structural health monitoring(SHM), particularly with decentralized damage identification techniques. A comparative analysis on wired and wireless sensor responses for effective damage detection and localization has been carried out in the laboratory. Two decentralized damage identification algorithms, namely, the AR model based damage index and the Wiener filter method are used for the process of damage identification. Wireless and wired sensor response data obtained from an experiment carried out on a steel beam have been used for the comparison study. Different damage scenarios are created using the grinder cut on the flange of the steel beam. The results showed that wireless sensor data performed very much similar to wired sensor data in detecting and localizing damages in the steel beam. Therefore, apart from the usual advantages of cost effectiveness, manageability, modularity etc., wireless sensors can be considered a possible substitute for wired sensors in SHM systems due to their competitive accuracy and reliability.]]