ABSTRACT
Civil structures such as bridges, buildings, dams, or wind turbines are complex systems that are vital to the well-being of our society. Safety and durability of civil structures play a very important role to ensure society’s economic and industrial prosperity. Unfortunately, many of our ageing civil structures are deteriorating because of continuous loading, harsh environmental conditions, and, often, inadequate maintenance. For example, in the
CONTENTS
5.1 Introduction .................................................................................................. 95 5.2 Multi-Agent Technology ............................................................................. 97 5.3 Development of Multi-Agent Systems for Structural
Health Monitoring Applications ............................................................... 98 5.3.1 Requirements Analysis ...................................................................99 5.3.2 Agent-Based System Analysis ........................................................99 5.3.3 Agent-Based System Design ......................................................... 101
5.4 Agent-Based Structural Health Monitoring of a Wind Turbine ......... 103 5.4.1 Architecture of the SHM System ................................................. 103 5.4.2 Implementation of a Multi-Agent System
for Data Monitoring ....................................................................... 106 5.4.3 Validation and Operation of the Multi-Agent System .............. 112
5.5 An Agent-Based Wireless Sensor Network for Structural Health Monitoring ..................................................................................... 115 5.5.1 Implementation of an Agent-Based Wireless
Sensor Network .............................................................................115 5.5.2 Validation of the Agent-Based Wireless Sensor Network ........ 118
5.6 Summary ..................................................................................................... 122 Acknowledgments .............................................................................................. 122 References ............................................................................................................. 123
United States more than 150,000 bridges-about 25% of the U.S. bridges-are considered structurally decient [1]. In Germany, as another example, more than 80% of the federal highway bridges show signs of deteriorations, with required repair and maintenance costs estimated at more than €6.8 billion [2]. Generally, all structures deteriorate over time. Therefore, an important task is to reliably assess the structural conditions and to ensure that safety standards are met throughout the operational live of a structure. It is also benecial for the owners and facility operators of a structure to know the extent of deteriorations and to estimate the remaining life of a structure.
