Numerical and experimental verification of piezoelectric sensor networks for health monitoring and control of frame structures

The present paper is concerned with the design of distributed strain-type sensors and strain-type sensor networks for structural and health monitoring of multi-storey frame structures. In particular displacement sensors and nilpotent sensors are discussed; the latter are used for damage detection. As an example problem a planar three-storey frame is studied, for which damage is introduced as hinges between the horizontal beams and the vertical columns; the sensor networks are put into practice by attached piezoelectric sensors. Analytical results are compared to numerical and experimental ones. A very good agreement is found and it is shown that nilpotent sensor networks are highly sensitive to such damage. Finally, the frame structure is also studied with respect to the effect of stiffness reductions in the columns; again, analytical and numerical results for the nilpotent sensor networks coincide well, and small reductions in stiffness can be detected.