A Novel Software Tool for the Optimal Sensor Placement in Civil Engineering Structures

The optimal sensor placement (OSP) is a critical aspect in the structural health monitoring (SHM) of structures as the number of sensors and their layout directly impact the quality of collected data and their usefulness in the process of structural health assessment. Issues related to both network topology and optimal sensor placement are therefore pivotal to maximize the quality of SHM information that can be retrieved from a limited quantity of sensors while reducing overall monitoring costs to the minimum. This paper explores the theme of OSP in civil engineering structures, introducing a novel software application (App) developed in Matlab environment. The App facilitates OSP analyses for researchers and practitioners through its intuitive graphical user interface. Incorporating the primary OSP methods prevalent in existing literature, the App is a preliminary release with fundamental functionalities for conducting OSP analyses.