Date of Award

8-2016

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department

Computer Engineering and Sciences

First Advisor

Luis Daniel Otero

Second Advisor

Aldo Fabregas

Third Advisor

Munevver Subasi

Fourth Advisor

Muzaffar A. Shaikh

Abstract

Structural health monitoring (SHM) systems have become important tools in the transportation industry to help monitor the behavior and health of civil structures. Today, there is a real concern about the health of bridges because these structures are aging, and various failure events have contributed to increase that concern. Consequently, the topic of improving the effectiveness and appropriate use of SHM systems have become the focus of various government agencies and researchers, both in industry and academia. In this context, this thesis work was developed to understand the general components of bridge SHM systems, and present a methodology to help decision-makers prioritize a set of sensors to be selected for a particular SHM system to satisfy specific mission objectives. This thesis presents a value based approach to prioritize sensors, developing concepts of qualitative value model, quantitative value model, and the swing weight matrix method to yield a ranked list of sensor alternatives to choose from in order to build an SHM system for bridge inspection purposes. Sensitive analyses were also conducted to evaluate the robustness of the methodology presented in the thesis.

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