Automation of structural health monitoring (SHM) system of a bridge using BIMification approach and BIM-based finite element model development

Muhammad Fawad; Marek Salamak; Grzegorz Poprawa; Kalman Koris; Marcin Jasinski; Piotr Lazinski; Dawid Piotrowski; Muhammad Hasnain; Michael Gerges

doi:10.1038/s41598-023-40355-7

Automation of structural health monitoring (SHM) system of a bridge using BIMification approach and BIM-based finite element model development

Sci Rep. 2023 Aug 14;13(1):13215. doi: 10.1038/s41598-023-40355-7.

Authors

Muhammad Fawad^{1

2}, Marek Salamak³, Grzegorz Poprawa³, Kalman Koris⁴, Marcin Jasinski³, Piotr Lazinski³, Dawid Piotrowski³, Muhammad Hasnain⁵, Michael Gerges⁶

Affiliations

¹ Faculty of Civil Engineering, Silesian University of Technology, Ul. Akademicka 2A, 44-100, Gliwice, Poland. muhammad.fawad@polsl.pl.
² Faculty of Civil Engineering, Budapest University of Technology and Economics, Műegyetem Rkp. 3, 1111, Budapest, Hungary. muhammad.fawad@polsl.pl.
³ Faculty of Civil Engineering, Silesian University of Technology, Ul. Akademicka 2A, 44-100, Gliwice, Poland.
⁴ Faculty of Civil Engineering, Budapest University of Technology and Economics, Műegyetem Rkp. 3, 1111, Budapest, Hungary.
⁵ University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, 32611, USA.
⁶ University of Wolverhampton, Wulfruna St, Wolverhampton, WV1 1LY, UK.

Abstract

This research focuses on the automation of an existing structural health monitoring system of a bridge using the BIMification approach. This process starts with the Finite Element Analysis (FEA) of an existing bridge for the numerical calculations of static and dynamic parameters. The validation of the FE model and existing SHM system was carried out by the field load testing (Static and dynamic) of the bridge. Further, this study tries to fill the research gap in the area of automatic FE model generation by using a novel methodology that can generate a BIM-based FE model using Visual Programming Language (VPL) scripts. This script can be exported to any FE software to develop the geometry of the FE model. Moreover, the SHM devices are deployed to the Building Information modelling (BIM) model of the bridge to generate the BIM-based sensory model (as per the existing SHM system). In this way, the BIM model is used to manage and monitor the SHM system and control its sensory elements. These sensors are then linked with the self-generated (Internet of Things) IoT platform (coded in Arduino), developing a smart SHM system of the bridge. Resultantly, the system features visualisation and remote accessibility to bridge health monitoring data.