A low cost distributed measurement system based on Hall effect sensors for structural crack monitoring in monumental architecture

In this paper the authors discuss a low-cost distributed monitoring system for structural crack monitoring in monumental architecture. The proposed solution is suitable for monitoring widely extended areas like the Siena's ancient city walls. The prototype sensing system, based on Hall sensor technology, has been developed and characterized to reach a displacement resolution in the order of tens of micrometers. The distributed measures are transmitted to a server using a wireless communication network based on a mesh topology. The server receives, collects, post-processes and stores the data in a database.