Structural displacement and strain monitoring based on the edge detection operator

Abstract

To decrease the cost of instrumentation for the strain and displacement monitoring method that uses sensors as well as considers the structural health monitoring challenges in sensor installation, it is necessary to develop a machine vision-based monitoring method. For this method, the most important step is the accurate extraction of the image feature. In this article, the edge detection operator based on multi-scale structure elements and the compound mathematical morphological operator is proposed to provide improved image feature extraction. The proposed method can not only achieve an improved filtering effect and anti-noise ability but can also detect the edge more accurately. Furthermore, the required image features (vertex of a square calibration board and centroid of a circular target) can be accurately extracted using the extracted image edge information. For validation, the monitoring tests for the structural local mean strain and in-plane displacement were designed accordingly. Through analysis of the error between the measured and calculated values of the structural strain and displacement, the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed edge detection operator are verified.