The challenge in monitoring aging transportation infrastructureand effects of increasing traffic (loads) on bridges. Contemporary technologies allow bridge monitoring extricate from periodic human inspections, instead to rely on electronically monitoring structures’ health, therefore, bridges can be maintained and repaired before any structural integrity problem could develop.
Along product development, civil engineers have becomefully aware of using sensors in evaluating infrastructure condition and it is also economic for cost / budget control in a long run. In a decent short period of time, the cost of instrumenting a typical bridge can offset the cost of periodically sending an experienced inspection crew to that bridge.
LV-45 and LV-48 series linear position sensors from Bestech Australia are used to monitor important structural elements of bridges and transmit data to a remote data logger in real time. These sensors are rated IEC IP67, and have built-in electronics that operate over a wide temperature range. In the real-life application photo to the left, two LV-48 position sensors are attached to the bridge and its supporting pier with rod-eye swivel ends to allow them to measure movement of the bridge over all three axes relative to the pier over time as well as the ambient temperature. The LV-45 and LV-48 sensors from Bestech Australia are offered with aluminumand stainless steel housings, a variety of mounting hardware, and cable or connector electrical terminations. These sensors give an analog output of either a high-level DC voltage or a 4-20 mA current loop, either of which can easily connect to any data acquisition system for continuous monitoring and/or data transmission over a remotely accessible wireless network.