Earthquake early warning and rapid response system based on smart seismic and monitoring sensors embedded in a communication platform and coupled with BIM models

Abstract

This paper describes the concept of an innovative, interdisciplinary, user-oriented earthquake warning and rapid response system coupled with a structural health monitoring system (SHM), capable to detect structural damages in real time. The novel system is based on interconnected decentralized seismic and structural health monitoring sensors. It is developed and will be ex-emplarily applied on critical infrastructures in Lower Rhine Region, in particular on a road bridge and within a chemical industrial facility. A communication network is responsible to exchange information between sensors and forward warnings and status reports about infrastructures' health condition to the concerned recipients (e.g., facility operators, local authorities). Safety measures such as emergency shutdowns are activated to mitigate structural damages and damage propagation. Local monitoring systems of the infrastructures are integrated in BIM models. The visualization of sensor data and the graphic representation of the detected damages provide spatial content to sensors data and serve as a useful and effective tool for the decision-making processes after an earthquake in the region under consideration.