Non-destructive stiffness detection of utility wooden poles using wireless MEMS sensor

This paper presents the design of a portable wireless measurement system for the non-destructive stiffness detection of wooden poles using MEMS sensor. Low cost capacitive micro-machined accelerometer is mounted on the surface of wooden poles and data collected from the vibrating wooden poles are used for the stiffness analysis of wooden poles. Fast Fourier transform is applied to the collected acceleration data records and the largest spectral peak is identified based on the estimated frequency spectrum. The relationship between the stiffness of a wooden pole and the largest spectral peak is provided. Health conditions of wooden poles are then derived based on the identified spectral peak. Fuzzy logic is also used to solve the problem of small samples. Experimental results and the accuracy of the method are also presented.