Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jul 17, 2026

Data Acquisition Protocol for Determining Embedded Sensitivity Functions
Published on: April 20, 2016
Effects of environmental and operational variability on structural health monitoring
1Civil and Environmental Engineering Department, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA. hsohn@andrew.cmu.edu
Abstract:
Stated in its most basic form, the objective of structural health monitoring is to ascertain if damage is present or not based on measured dynamic or static characteristics of a system to be monitored. In reality, structures are subject to changing environmental and operational conditions that affect measured signals, and these ambient variations of the system can often mask subtle changes in the system's vibration signal caused by damage. Data normalization is a procedure to normalize datasets, so that signal changes caused by operational and environmental variations of the system can be separated from structural changes of interest, such as structural deterioration or degradation. This paper first reviews the effects of environmental and operational variations on real structures as reported in the literature. Then, this paper presents research progresses that have been made in the area of data normalization.
Related Concept Videos
Fatigue
Random and Systematic Errors
Random Error
Design Consideration
The factor of safety is another key aspect...
Microcracking in Concrete
Errors occurring during blood pressure monitoring
Several factors...
