ISSN: 2643-6876 DOI: 10.33552/CTCSE.2025.11.

000767

Current Trends in
Civil & Structural Engineering

Short Communication Copyright © All rights are reserved by Naveet Kaur

Guidelines for Structural Health

Monitoring

Suresh Bhalla1, Naveet Kaur2* and Rohit Gogna3

1
Professor, Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), President of ISHMS, Delhi, India
2
Vice President ISHMS
3
Founder and Chairman, Sanrachna Prahri Private Limited, General Secretary of ISHMS, India

*Corresponding author: Naveet Kaur, CSIR-CRRI, Mathura Road, New Delhi, Received Date: January 20, 2025
India
Published Date: February 07, 2025

Abstract
The Indian Structural Health Monitoring Society (ISHMS) has introduced the Guidelines for Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) to address
the urgent need for systematic monitoring and maintenance of India’s rapidly growing infrastructure. Approved in the 4th General Body Meeting
on 10 June 2024, this document provides a foundational framework for implementing SHM across critical structures, ensuring informed decision-
making through data-driven approaches. The guidelines recommend SHM implementation from the construction phase or at the earliest for existing
structures, targeting high-rise buildings, specific types of bridges, nuclear power plants, vibration-sensitive structures, and large-span domes or
spaces. Key parameters to be monitored include static and dynamic metrics such as deflection, strain, temperature, and natural frequencies, with a
focus on deploying advanced sensor technologies like vibrating wire strain gauges, fiber-optic sensors, and piezoelectric sensors. Instrumentation
modes range from manual to IoT-enabled systems, with a preference for automated, real-time data acquisition and analysis. The guidelines emphasize
regular reporting, threshold-based alert generation, and feature extraction to assess structural conditions effectively. Specific structural components
such as foundations, bridge decks, and building joints are prioritized for instrumentation to ensure compliance with national codes like IRC 112
and IS 1893. This document serves as a comprehensive guide for stakeholders to adopt modern SHM practices, reducing downtime, optimizing
maintenance, and enhancing the longevity and safety of infrastructure.

Keywords: SHM; Guidelines; bridges; Concrete structures

Abbreviation: SHM: Structural Health Monitoring; RTF: Run to Failure; GC: Governing Council; GCM: Governing Council Meeting; ISHMS: Indian
Structural Health Monitoring Society; PZT: Lead zirconate titanate; CVS: Concrete vibration sensors; MFC: Macro-Fiber composite; IoT: internet of
things

Introduction
construction all over the country. Unfortunately, not enough seems
India is witnessing a high surge in construction activities as
to be done with regard to the monitoring and maintenance of the
part of the infrastructure boost accompanying its strong economic
ever-growing infrastructure repository. There is no code of practice
growth. Numerous bridges, tall buildings, airports, railway stations
at the present related to structural health monitoring (SHM) in
and similar structures are currently under various stages of
India. The Indian infrastructure industry typically follows the “run

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 Current Trends in Civil & Structural Engineering Volume 11-Issue 4

to failure (RTF)” model as far maintenance in concerned. This 2023 decided to prepare a document serving as basic guideline to
means ignoring any monitoring or maintenance needs till some various stakeholders. The Governing Council Meeting (GCM) held
problem creeps in. No sensor-based data driven scientific approach on 12 January 2024 decided to receive suggestions from industry
is often followed. SHM is defined as a continuous sensor-based data also. Accordingly, online surveys were conducted from 06 March
driven approach aimed to facilitate informed decision about current 2024 to receive inputs from industry and other stakeholders. The
health condition of the structure. This is the right time Indian document was approved in the Fourth GBM held on 10 June 2024.
infrastructure industry adopts modern SHM sensors and related The document attempts to provide basic guidelines to stakeholders
technologies so that decisions backed by scientific data are arrived to implement SHM in their structures.
at any future instant of time rather than relying on the RTF approach
leading to greater downtime as well as higher recovery cost for
Structures on which should SHM be implemented?
infrastructure. This document is prepared by the Governing Council It is recommended that SHM be implemented on category of
(GC) of the Indian Structural Health Monitoring Society (ISHMS) structures mentioned in Table 1 right from the construction stage.
based on its body of expert members and also after receiving In case of existing structures, it is recommended to implement SHM
feedback from industry experts as well as relevant government at the earliest possible:
agencies. The second General Body Meeting (GBM) held on 11 Dec

Table 1: Structures where it is recommended to implement SHM.

Type of Structure Recommendation

> 15 storeys or height 50 m and above: up to zone IV (as per IS1893)
Buildings
> 7 storeys or height 20 m and above: zone V (as per IS1893)
(i)      RCC bridges with span equal to or exceeding 25 m
(ii)    Prestressed girder bridges with span equal to or exceeding
·         30 m for I-type
·         40 m for Box type
Bridges (iii) Steel truss bridges with span equal to or exceeding 75 m
(iv) All cable stayed, suspension and extradosed bridges irrespective of span
(v)   Skew bridges with span equal to or exceeding
·         20 m: RCC I-shaped girder, 25 m: Pre-stressed I-shaped girders
·         25 m: RCC Box-type girder, 30 m: Prestress Box-type girder
Nuclear power plants
Structures under continuous vibrations, such as critical machine foundations, such as those for turbo generators
Structures with importance factor of more than one as per IS 1893 (I)
Spaces/ domes exceeding 30 m span

Parameters To Be Monitored as Part of SHM b. Dynamic: Deflection, strain, at least first natural frequency
and mode shape
Generally, SHM involves monitoring static and dynamic
parameters. Concerned agencies may decide to instrument sensors Sensors
for measuring following parameters:
Sensors play crucial role in the process of SHM. Table 2 provides
a. Static: Deflection, strain, temperature the list of commercially available sensors, which the concerned
agencies might consider while instrumenting a structure

Table 2: List of commercially available sensors for SHM.

1. Vibrating wire strain gauges

2. Linear Variable Displacement Sensor (LVDT)
3. Laser based sensor/ techniques
4. Tilt/ inclinometers (for deflections)
Piezo sensors (for global vibration technique or electro-mechanical impedance)
·      Lead zirconate titanate (PZT) for surface bonding
5.
·      Concrete vibration sensors (CVS) for embedding inside RC structures
·      Macro-fiber composite (MFC) for surface bonding

Citation: Suresh Bhalla, Naveet Kaur* and Rohit Gogna. Guidelines for Structural Health Monitoring. Cur Trends Civil & Struct Eng. Page 2 of 3
11(4): 2025. CTCSE.MS.ID.000767. DOI: 10.33552/CTCSE.2025.11.000767.
 Current Trends in Civil & Structural Engineering Volume 11-Issue 4

6. Accelerometers
7. Vision based techniques/ sensors
8. Fiber-optic sensors
9. Any other scientifically established sensors deemed relevant to the structure or the component

Instrumentation Cum Measurement Mode structure. Sampling should be accompanied by a report generation,
which should be at least monthly for IoT based monitoring and
Depending upon the expertise and budget available, concerned
at least six monthly for manual SHM. The measured data should
agencies may decide to adopt either manual or internet of things
be analysed to enable suitable feature extraction based on the
(IoT) based automatic mode (preferred) for data acquisition from
particular measurement and utilizing the currently available SHM
the instrumented sensors. If IoT based instrumentation is adopted,
literature. In case of IoT mode, the system should be capable of
the data should preferably be available to users in online real-time
generating alert/ warning in case of threshold exceedance.
graphical user interface. Suitable sampling interval be adopted
for static and dynamic measurement such that it is able to enable Structural Components to be Instrumented
appropriate feature extraction, whether static strain/ deflection
It is recommended to instrument the components of structures
or dynamic parameters such as natural frequencies, mode shapes
mentioned in Table 3 [1-3].
or any structural signature representative of the condition of the

Table 3: List of commercially available sensors for SHM.

S.No. Structural Component Parameters to be measured

1. Foundations/ piles Settlement, inclination, tilt etc.

Strain (static/ dynamic), deflection and acceleration.

Static strains are relatively easy to measure as compared to deflection and can be used for compliance to deflection
limits imposed by bridge codes such as IRC 112 (2020).

Following theoretical expressions (based on Euler-Bernoulli beam theory) can be used to convert measured mid-
span strain into mid-span deflection for simply supported bridges:
2. Bridge-deck
5 L2
• Under uniformly distributed load: δ= ε
24 D

L2
• Under point load: δ= ε
3D
3. Bridge Piers and abutments
4. Beams, columns and joints of framed structures
5. Building floors for acceleration response measurement under wind/ earthquake [refer IS 16700 (2017)]

Acknowledgements References
The authors gratefully acknowledge all the GC members of 1. IRC 112 (2020) Code of Practice for Concrete Road Bridges.
ISHMS for the year 2024-25 including Mr Sayed Sameer Hasan 2. IS 16700 (2017) Criteria for Structural Safety of Tall Concrete Buildings.
(Financial Secretary), Shipra Prakash (GC Member), Dattar Singh 3. IS 1893 (I) Criteria for Earthquake Resistant Design of Structures: Part 1
Aulakh (GC Member), Dr. S K Dhawan (GC Member), Dr. Visalakshi General Provisions and Buildings.
Talakokula (GC Member) and Dr. Sumedha Moharana for their
support in bringing out these SHM guidelines.

Citation: Suresh Bhalla, Naveet Kaur* and Rohit Gogna. Guidelines for Structural Health Monitoring. Cur Trends Civil & Struct Eng. Page 3 of 3
11(4): 2025. CTCSE.MS.ID.000767. DOI: 10.33552/CTCSE.2025.11.000767.