2019 Structural Heath Monitoring of Intelligent Infrastructure Recap – St. Louis, MO

The 9th International Conference on Structural Health Monitoring of Intelligent Infrastructure (SHMII-9) was held on August 4-7, 2019, in St. Louis, Missouri. Crystal Instruments attended the conference as an exhibitor, showcasing a new Digital Sensor prototype, in addition to the typical data acquisition and vibration testing offerings.

The Digital Sensor System consists of multiple tri-axial MEMS sensors connected to an on-site concentrator. Unlike most existing monitoring systems, digital sampling of acceleration data is performed on the sensor level with nanosecond-level time synchronization, allowing for a 10x reduction in cost as well as improved noise resistance. 

Digital Sensor System - digital sampling of acceleration data is performed on the sensor level with nanosecond-level time synchronization, allowing for a 10x reduction in cost as well as improved noise resistance.

The 3-day conference program consisted of paper presentations, keynote lectures and poster board discussions covering topics ranging from using neural networks for early detection of structural damage to using unmanned aerial vehicles for bridge inspection. Some sessions discussed the applications for using accelerometers to measure the modal shapes of bridge structures, revealing potential applications for Digital Sensor. Additionally, we received some traffic interested in our usual offerings for earthquake testing or modal analysis. 

The biennial conference was a successful opportunity for Crystal Instruments to connect with solutions providers exploring the potential for partnerships in integrating hardware sensor offerings. We look forward to exploring new opportunities in structural health monitoring, in addition to data acquisition and vibration testing.