Sensor networks for structures health monitoring: placement, implementations, and challenges—a review

The development of structural health monitoring (SHM) systems and their integration in actual structures has become a necessity as it can provide a robust and low-cost solution for monitoring the structural integrity of and the ability to predict the remaining life of structures. In this review, we aim at focusing on one of the important issues of SHM, the design, and implementation of sensor networks. Location and number of sensors, in any SHM system, are of high importance as they impact the system integration, system performance, and accuracy of assessment, as well as the total cost. Hence we are interested in shedding the light on the sensor networks as an essential component of SHM systems. The review discusses several important parameters including design and optimization of sensor networks, development of academic and commercial solutions, powering of sensors, data communication, data transmission, and analytics. Finally, we presented some successful case studies including the challenges and limitations associated with the sensor networks.