Optimal Sensor Placement Strategy for Structural Health Monitoring with Application of the Aqueduct El Hnaya of Carthage

Abstract

The concept of structural health monitoring (SHM), which ensures maintenance and conservation of the built environment, is progressively growing in importance. SHM offers the building's historical and cultural value in addition to its safety. Nowadays days, Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) are frequently employed for SHM and offer a strong contender to address a number of problems, including sensor location. A sensor placement approach is therefore needed considering fragility and significance of the historic structures. In this paper, we propose sensors placement methods applied on the historical monument Aqueduct of Carthage of Tunisia. Our method is based on the Finite Element Modeling (FEM) to carry out the mesh model of the structure arches and to identify two types of the arch zones; stressed and unstressed zones. Based on FEM results, we determine the optimal sensor positions to maximize the covered surface, given a limited number of sensor.