KICT Develops Self-Diagnosis System for Bridge Cable Safety

The Korea Institute of Civil Engineering and Building Technology announced on July 22 that the research team led by Park Youngsoo at the Structural Research Division has developed an 'Internet of Things-based autonomous cable monitoring system' (hereafter referred to as the system) that can automatically detect abnormal signals from bridge cables, analyze the cable condition independently, and predict potential issues.

Prototype for cable autonomous monitoring algorithm integration. Provided by Korea Institute of Civil Engineering and Building Technology.

Cable-stayed bridges are representative structures that use cable support methods and are actively applied in bridge construction due to their structural efficiency and aesthetic advantages. In the field, most cable-stayed bridges are managed by continuously collecting data such as acceleration, strain, temperature, and wind speed. In particular, precise monitoring of cable tension is considered a key element for safety management.

However, conventional wired measurement systems require the installation of conduits to protect the cables after connecting sensors and loggers (data collection devices).

To address this, Internet of Things sensors are being used, but most sensors are limited to simple data transmission and device control functions.

As a result, large volumes of data are processed centrally, which means the advantages of distributed processing?a core feature of the Internet of Things?are not fully utilized. Even if cable movements are measured by sensors, there are technical limitations in estimating these as tension values.

To overcome these issues, the research team integrated sensors and algorithms to develop a system that automatically detects abnormal signals from bridge cables, analyzes the cable condition independently, and predicts potential problems.

This system analyzes the data collected by the sensors on its own and transmits only meaningful information wirelessly (via LTE), resulting in low power consumption and enabling communication without the need for separate wireless infrastructure.

The system is equipped with 256GB of internal storage, ensuring that data can be reliably stored and retransmitted even in the event of communication failures.

A measurement system has been installed and is being pilot-operated on the Panguil Bay Bridge in the Philippines. Photo by Korea Institute of Civil Engineering and Building Technology

When the research team pilot-applied the developed system to two cables of Seoul Olympic Bridge last year, they confirmed that the system achieved higher accuracy in tension measurement compared to existing wired measurement systems, with an average margin of error of 0.5%.

Additionally, last year, the technology was applied to the Boseong meteorological observation tower (307 meters tall) operated by the National Institute of Meteorological Sciences of the Korea Meteorological Administration, where its excellent performance was reconfirmed. When data measured by the developed sensors was transmitted to the server, the data reception rate was 99%, and the tension detection rate was 98.5%.

The institute is currently verifying the potential for local application by installing the system on the Panguil Bay Bridge in the Philippines as part of its efforts to enter the Southeast Asian market.

Park Seongyu, president of the institute, stated, "The technology developed by the research team is an effective facility safety management method for environments that require real-time, large-scale data processing," and added, "The institute will continue research and development to ensure highly reliable safety management for various social infrastructure facilities in the future."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.