Design and Field Validation of an Offline Synchronized Multi-Sensor DAQ System for Bridge Structural Health Monitoring

Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) of large-span bridges requires dense sensor networks to accurately capture dynamic and kinematic behaviors. Traditional commercial systems rely on complex wiring or wireless protocols that frequently suffer from data loss, high power consumption, and synchronization phase errors, which are detrimental to Operational Modal Analysis (OMA). To address these limitations, this study presents the design, development, and field validation of a custom, offline-synchronized multi-sensor Data Acquisition (DAQ) system. Two specialized sensor nodes were developed: (i) an inertial node integrating a low-noise triaxial MEMS accelerometer (ADXL355); and (ii) a displacement node featuring a 24-bit Analog-to-Digital Converter (ADS1220) for displacement sensors. Both nodes share an ultra-low-power microcontroller (STM32L431) and utilize a local microSD storage strategy with an intermediate pseudo-SRAM buffer. To ensure precise temporal alignment without wireless communication overhead, each node incorporates a temperature-compensated Real-Time Clock (DS3231) for offline timestamp synchronization. The system was validated during a field campaign on the Spyckstraße bridge (Germany), deploying a hardware pool of 53 physical DAQ nodes to monitor 118 distinct geometric measurement points (106 inertial, 12 displacement) through a hybrid strategy of fixed and roving setups. The proposed system achieved reliable, low-noise measurements and enabled accurate extraction of operational mode shapes, demonstrating its viability as a robust, cost-effective solution for large-scale infrastructure monitoring.