Optimising the placement of a minimum number of sensors for seismic health monitoring of mid- and high-rise structures

Details

Supervisors

Saraiva Esteves Pacheco De Almeida, João ; Hoult, Ryan

Faculty

Ecole polytechnique de Louvain

Degree label

Master [120] : ingénieur civil des constructions, à finalité spécialisée

Abstract

Assessing the structural safety of buildings after an earthquake is crucial to reduce the economic and human losses caused by this natural disaster. Visual identification of damage can be time-consuming, imprecise, and incomplete. Therefore, to support the localisation of the damages, instruments can be installed. However, building code recommendations are simple instrumentations that have proven to be inefficient in determining structural health after a seismic event. Moreover, the configuration of instruments needed to obtain meaningful data requires a large number of sensors. Instrumentation of a structure can be costly and there are no recommendations for minimum sensor placement based on the budget of building owners. This work investigates recommendations for an optimal minimum number of sensors, from 1 to 5, which represents a reasonable investment. This instrumentation makes it possible to monitor the seismic structural health of the building at limited cost and to assist post-earthquake decisions. The recommendations were formulated on the basis of a simple numerical model and the literature. The model created was calibrated on the basis of experimental results obtained during shake table tests on scaled structures. The recommendations are simple and easy to follow for building owners intending to invest in seismic monitoring of their existing structures or those under construction.