Constrained Relay Node Deployment in Wireless Sensor Network for Structural Health Monitoring

Structural health monitoring (SHM) is implemented to monitor and prevent performance degradation or failure for structures (e.g., equipment, bridge). Compared with the traditional wired system, Wireless sensor network (WSN) has attracted more attention in SHM systems for its convenience and expandability, etc. Meanwhile, WSNs with two-tiered topology can extend the life of sensors, and are usually deployed in SHM applications. However, the common non-uniform structure distribution and metal-rich feature in structures cause the error-prone or even invalid data transmission, and thus constrain the deployable location of the WSN, and make the WSN deployment a daunting engineering challenge. In this paper, we propose a solution to deploy WSN at strategic locations to achieve the reliable connection of preset sensor positions on structures. In our solution, the restricted location is classified, and the shortest path search method and the Steiner approximation algorithm are combined to optimize the topology path of the WSN. We demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed solution through simulations on a physical structure of quayside crane.