Urban Viaduct Structural Health Monitoring: A Review of Wireless Sensor Approaches

Urban viaducts have been extensively built in large cities due to traffic pressure on main roads. Although urban viaducts provide relief and reduce traffic, they also pose potential threats to citizens’ safety due to the possibility of collapse. However, most collapses do not happen instantly. Structural health monitoring (SHM) systems can effectively detect structural damage to prevent collapses; however, they are not widely deployed due to the high cost of sensor installation. With wireless sensor technology thriving due to its accuracy and cost-efficiency, the wireless monitoring of massive urban viaducts has become possible. In this paper, we review the full-chain methods of employing wireless sensor technology for urban viaduct structural health monitoring. By proposing a general wireless structural health monitoring approach as a framework, we first review the sensor types and wireless transmission technologies, then the data processing and modal identification methods, and finally the damage detection methods. This paper aims to provide a full-chain review of the mainstream methods in wireless sensor approaches for the SHM of urban viaducts.