MonVia Project, Development and Application of a New Sensor Box

A notable percentage of Italian bridges were built more than fifty years ago before the introduction of a seismic code. Although they do not meet the current technical code requirements, they are still part of the road or railway network. As some recent bridge collapses have demonstrated, all of these structures need attention, and modern and reliable continuous monitoring systems may represent a fundamental tool to identify the occurrence of damage or structural failure. MonVia Project has been funded by the Italian Ministry of Economic Development and one of the main outcomes of the research is the design and realization of a new multiparameter Sensor Box for continuous monitoring purposes of structures and infrastructures. The Sensor Box includes a high-sensitivity ultra-low noise tri-axial QMEMS accelerometer, a high accuracy bi-axial MEMS inclinometer and temperature, pressure and humidity sensors. The Sensor Boxes can be wire-connected, powered by switch PoE and synchronized by a GNSS/GPS-based PPS distributed system. A wireless data communication protocol is implemented for the data transfer and the Wi-Fi performance has been tested in the 200 sps high-flux scenario. Aiming to evaluate its performance, the system has been installed on a reinforced concrete arch bridge, playing a strategic role in the central road network of the city of Ragusa, southeastern Sicily. Although eastern Sicily is one of the most seismic-prone European areas, the bridge, built in 1964, was not designed to withstand seismic actions. In the paper, the performance of the continuous Ragusa bridge’s monitoring system for SHM is discussed, highlighting the pros and cons of the Sensor Box realized inside the MonVia project compared to a commercial device.