Buildings’ Biaxial Tilt Assessment Using Inertial Wireless Sensors and a Parallel Training Model

Abstract

Applications of MEMS-based sensing technology are beneficial and versatile. If these electronic sensors integrate efficient processing methods, and if supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) software is also required, then mass networked real-time monitoring will be limited by cost, revealing a research gap related to the specific processing of signals. Static and dynamic accelerations are very noisy, and small variations of correctly processed static accelerations can be used as measurements and patterns of the biaxial inclination of many structures. This paper presents a biaxial tilt assessment for buildings based on a parallel training model and real-time measurements using inertial sensors, Wi-Fi Xbee, and Internet connectivity. The specific structural inclinations of the four exterior walls and their severity of rectangular buildings in urban areas with differential soil settlements can be supervised simultaneously in a control center. Two algorithms, combined with a new procedure using successive numeric repetitions designed especially for this work, process the gravitational acceleration signals, improving the final result remarkably. Subsequently, the inclination patterns based on biaxial angles are generated computationally, considering differential settlements and seismic events. The two neural models recognize 18 inclination patterns and their severity using an approach in cascade with a parallel training model for the severity classification. Lastly, the algorithms are integrated into monitoring software with 0.1° resolution, and their performance is verified on a small-scale physical model for laboratory tests. The classifiers had a precision, recall, F1-score, and accuracy greater than 95%.

Keywords

• real-time measurement
• structural health monitoring
• biaxial tilt angle
• inclination severity
• building applications
• signal processing