ON THE OPTIMAL LOCATION OF SENSORS IN MULTI-STOREYED BUILDINGS

A new approach has been developed for finding optimal location of sensors in 3D multi-storeyed buildings. This approach is based on the compact probabilistic representation of acceleration response in terms of its covariance matrix. For a specified number of sensors, the optimal location has been taken to be the one for which the computed covariance matrix is closest to the exact covariance matrix of the random field constituted by the acceleration response process. It has been found that the determined sensor locations match favourably with those predicted by earlier studies for the special case of shear buildings. Further, the optimality of the determined sensor locations has also been verified by identifying the system parameters from the time series data and comparing them with those of the Finite Element Model.