IoT-Based Structural Health Monitoring System

Problem statement

Many buildings, bridges and industrial structures undergo gradual wear and damage due to aging, overloading or environmental factors. Traditional inspection methods are manual and infrequent, which means early warning signs of failure can be missed. A continuous, low-cost structural health monitoring system is needed to detect abnormal vibrations or stresses before catastrophic failure occurs.

Abstract

This project implements a distributed IoT-based structural health monitoring system. Multiple sensor nodes installed at critical points on a structure measure vibration levels and strains using accelerometers and strain gauges. Each node uses a microcontroller to preprocess data and transmit it wirelessly via LoRa or Wi-Fi to a central gateway. A cloud or local dashboard visualizes real-time vibration signatures, stress trends and alerts when readings cross safety thresholds. The system can be deployed on bridges, buildings or towers to aid engineers in maintenance planning and safety assessment.

Components required

• Microcontroller node (ESP32 / ESP8266 / Arduino + LoRa)
• 3-axis accelerometer (e.g. ADXL345)
• Strain gauge with signal conditioning amplifier
• LoRa transceiver modules or Wi-Fi router
• Central gateway (Raspberry Pi / ESP32)
• Cloud server or local PC dashboard
• Power supply and mounting hardware

Block diagram

Working

Accelerometers and strain gauges mounted on the structure sense vibration and deformation. Each sensor node samples these signals at regular intervals, filters noise and computes basic features such as RMS vibration, peak acceleration or strain percentage. The processed data is sent to the central gateway over LoRa or Wi-Fi. The gateway aggregates readings from all nodes and uploads them to a server, where a dashboard plots time series, trends and heatmaps of stress hotspots. Threshold logic or simple ML models can flag abnormal vibrations or sudden changes, generating alerts via email, SMS or on-screen notifications.

Applications

• Bridge and flyover structural monitoring
• High-rise building health assessment
• Industrial plant structure monitoring
• Research projects in civil and structural engineering
• Smart city infrastructure management