Eigenfrequency analysis of bridges using a smartphone and a novel low-cost accelerometer prototype

Abstract

Researchers are paying increasing attention to the development of low-cost and microcontroller-based accelerometers, in order to make structural health monitoring feasible for conventional bridges with limited monitoring budget. Parallel with the low-cost sensor development, the use of the embedded accelerometers of smartphones for eigenfrequency analysis of bridges is becoming popular in the civil engineering literature. This paper, for the first time in the literature, studies these two promising technologies by comparing the noise density and eigenfrequency analysis of a self-developed, validated and calibrated low-cost Internet of things based accelerometer LARA (low cost adaptable reliable accelerometer) with those of a state of the art smartphone (iPhone XR). The eigenfrequency analysis of a footbridge in San Sebastian, Spain, showed that the embedded accelerometer of the iPhone XR can measure the natural frequencies of the under study bridge.

Graphical abstract

Keywords

smartphone / modal analysis / eigenfrequency analysis / low-cost / accelerometers / Arduino / Raspberry / Internet of things

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Acknowledgements

The paper is supported by the projects PID2021-126405OB-C31, funded by FEDER funds—A Way to Make Europe and Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness MICIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033/, the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 52278313 and 52411540031), the Project to Attract Foreign Experts (No. G2023133018L), and the Top Discipline Plan of Shanghai Universities—Class I.

Competing interests

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

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