Wavelet Transform for Structural Health Monitoring: A Compendium of Uses and Features

The strategic and monetary value of the civil infrastructure worldwide necessitates the development of structural health monitoring (SHM) systems that can accurately monitor structural response due to real-time loading conditions, detect damage in the structure, and report the location and nature of this damage. In the last decade, extensive research has been carried out for developing vibration-based damage detection algorithms that can relate structural dynamics changes to damage occurrence in a structure. In the mean time, the wavelet transform (WT), a signal processing technique based on a windowing approach of dilated ‘scaled’ and shifted wavelets, is being applied to a broad range of engineering applications. Wavelet transform has proven its ability to overcome many of the limitations of the widely used Fourier transform (FT); hence, it has gained popularity as an efficient means of signal processing in SHM systems. This increasing interest in WT for SHM in diverse applications motivates the authors to write an exposition on the current WT technologies.

This article presents a utilitarian view of WT and its technologies. By reviewing the state-of-the-art in WT for SHM, the article discusses specific needs of SHM addressed by WT, classifies WT for damage detection into various fields, and describes features unique to WT that lends itself to SHM. The ultimate intent of this article is to provide the readers with a background on the various aspects of WT that might appeal to their need and sector of interest in SHM. Additionally, the comprehensive literature review that comprises this study will provide the interested reader a focused search to investigate using wavelets in SHM.