Innovative cable force monitoring of stay cables using piezoelectric dynamic strain responses

This study presents a method to monitor cable force of a long-span cable-stayed bridge using a smart piezoelectric sensor system. The following approaches are implemented in order to achieve the objective. Firstly, the method to utilize piezoelectric materials for the health monitoring of stay cables is presented. For strain measurement of a stay cable, a PZT-embedded smart skin is designed to overcome the difficulties of bonding PZT sensors directly on stay cables. Secondly, a piezoelectric strain monitoring system for stay cables is designed. For the operation of the sensor board, the Imote2 sensor platform is used to provide the computation, wireless communication and power supply units. The feasibility of the proposed monitoring system is then evaluated on a full-scale cable of a cable-stayed bridge.