Autonomous systems for strain and vibration measurements

When studying the long-term behaviour of large-scale civil structures, it often becomes necessary to resort to monitoring of certain structural parameters. This research paper discusses two such applications. A first prototype was used to monitor strains in a concrete fly-over with CFRP- reinforcements. The second prototype was used recently to monitor the vibrations in a continuous fashion during four weeks of speed tests on a new section of the European High Speed Train network. This article gives an overview of these experiences and on the lessons learned concerning power supply and possible electromagnetic interference in harsh construction site condition. In addition, it describes the intentions to build, a new completely autonomous third prototype for thermal strain monitoring. Furthermore, the most important results of both test cases are discussed in short, including the effectiveness off the CFRP-reinforcement and the measured natural frequencies.