Large Scale Monitoring System for Existing Structures and Infrastructures

Most of the key structures of highways and railways systems in Europe and North America has been built after Second World War during the economic boom that took place between the 50s and the 70s of the last century. This heritage of existing infrastructures and building of the "Western World" is nowadays subject to a natural and gradual aging process, induced by the progressive deterioration and the age of the structures, which causes a consequent functional obsolescence. This process develops with continuity and therefore can be controlled over time and can become foreseeable in most cases. Adequate scheduled maintenance can then be applied to keep the safety levels and the performance of the structures aligned with standards requirements. The best way to control ageing and deterioration is the implementation and installation of diagnostic systems for the estimation of constructions safety levels and operating conditions. This monitoring systems are known and used since many decades, but have never been toughly applied as a standard in civil engineering works as it has happened for instance to the automotive field. Traditional monitoring systems of infrastructures require careful assessment of the current state of the artefacts, through detailed and targeted surveys, expensive laboratory instruments and highly skilled labour. This article presents two diagnostic systems based on an innovative, affordable and minimally invasive monitoring, able to provide the user with real-time information on the state of health of the structure. The system is composed of low-cost sensors, capable of monitoring various physical quantities, and connected to each other with different technologies for data transfer and sensor power supply. The recorded data are initially processed directly on board, then sent to the cloud, where they can be further processed or made available for subsequent processing or for a comparison with the expected response calculated using mathematical models of the structure.