Comparison on Sensor Fault Detection Techniques for SHM Systems

Research output: Contribution to book/Conference proceedings/Anthology/Report › Conference contribution › Contributed › peer-review

Contributors

  • Jan Hauke Bartels - , LPI Ingenieurgesellschaft mbH (Author)
  • Soren Meyer Zu Westerhausen - (Author)
  • Thomas Potthast - , Leibniz University Hannover (LUH) (Author)
  • Michael Beer - , Leibniz University Hannover (LUH) (Author)
  • Steffen Marx - , Chair of Concrete Structures (Author)
  • Roland Lachmayer - (Author)

Abstract

Engineering systems are designed to serve society for decades and are exposed to multiple environmental and load conditions. This circumstance leads to the degradation of the system, causing different structural behaviours. In this regard, monitoring systems can assess structural health by recording time-dependent structural behaviour through a network of measurement instruments. However, monitoring systems can be affected by changing external conditions, leading to sensor degradation and faults that produce plausible data but incorrect information about the structural condition. Therefore, distinguishing between sensor faults and structural damage is critical to ensuring the reliability of SHM over the lifetime of the structure. Different techniques with varying effort and complexity could be used, such as linear regression, Mahalanobis distance, or multiple neural network architectures, to identify sensor faults. This study investigates the suitability of these techniques regarding the accuracy of sensor fault detection and computational effort on the example of a steel specimen equipped with nine strain gauges in a 3-point bending test with a cyclic load. In the test, one of the nine sensors showed a signal drift, which needs to be detected in a monitoring application using these sensor fault detection techniques. The results show that for this simple test, the Mahalanobis distance is the fastest and most accurate, while the linear regression technique is very fast but very imprecise, and the artificial neural network is relatively accurate but very slow. However, all the techniques used showed the potential to significantly increase the robustness of the monitoring system, which is important for more complex engineering structures.

Details

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationStructural Health Monitoring 2025
EditorsFu-Kuo Chang, Alfredo Guemes
PublisherDEStech Publications
Pages402-410
Number of pages9
ISBN (electronic)9781605956992
Publication statusPublished - 2025
Peer-reviewedYes

Workshop

Title15th International Workshop on Structural Health Monitoring: Ensuring Mobility and Autonomy with Sustainability
SubtitleSHM: Ensuring Mobility and Autonomy with Sustainability
Abbreviated titleIWSHM 2025
Conference number15
Duration9 - 11 September 2025
Website
LocationStanford University
CityStanford
CountryUnited States of America

External IDs

ORCID /0000-0003-4752-1519/work/223383780
ORCID /0000-0001-8735-1345/work/223386015

Keywords

Keywords

  • Artificial Neural Network, cyclic loading, linear regression, Mahalanobis distance, sensor ageing, sensor fault detection, strain gauge measurement, Structural Health Monitoring