Categories of SHM Deployments: Technologies and Capabilities

The findings of an extensive literature survey focusing on bridge structural health monitoring (SHM) deployments are presented. Conventional, maturing, and emerging technologies are reviewed as well as deployment considerations for new SHM endeavors. The lack of published calibration studies (and quantification of uncertainty studies) for new sensors is highlighted as a major concern and area for future research. There are currently very few examples of SHM systems that have clearly provided significant value to the owners of monitored structures. The results of the literature survey are used to propose a categorization system to better assess the potential outcomes of bridge SHM deployments. It is shown that SHM studies can be categorized as one (or a combination) of the following: (1) anomaly detection, (2) sensor deployment studies, (3) model validation, (4) threshold check, and (5) damage detection. The new framework aids engineers specifying monitoring systems to determine what should be measured and why, hence allowing them to better evaluate what value may be delivered to the relevant stakeholders for the monitoring investments.