Abstract
In recent years, measurement in a smart-phone environment is attracting attention in various fields due to its easy set-up process, various functions, convenience and expandability. Even in the field of safety evaluation and maintenance of large-scale infra-structures, the appropriate application of these effective and convenient measurement techniques can be of great help. In this paper, an experimental study was conducted to investigate the effectiveness, problems and complementary methods of applying smart-phone accelerometers to the measurement in infra-structure such as bridges. In model bridge subjected to impact and moving loads, the measured accelerations using a smart-phone and a professional accelerometer were directly compared in time domain. And the statistical and frequency characteristics of the measured signal and transfer function were also examined in frequency domain. The results show that the accuracy of measurement using smart-phone sensor is primarily affected by its incomplete sampling performance. In conclusion, smart-phone sensors cannot be considered suitable for precise assessment, where measurements must be accurate over a wide frequency range, but we can say that the technique is still useful and fairly accurate for some purpose over a limited frequency range, such as the low pass frequency range, which is a major concern for civil structures.
