On the comparison of optimum criteria for sensors placement in lattice towers: two cases of study

Placing sensors at appropriate locations is an important task in the dynamic assessment of the mechanical systems and its role is central in structural health monitoring. All sensors have to be placed on the structure so that all sought system features be obtained from the experimental tests. Sensors network design is rather diffused in laboratory applications, but there are scarce investigations on real civil structures and they are not so well documented. In order to give a contribution in this framework, the present paper deals with the optimal sensors placement problem on lattice towers. With reference to six of the most diffused existing optimum criteria and according to mechanical and energetic formulations, several sensors network configurations are calculated for two example broadcasting antennas, adopted as benchmark cases of studies. The final topological configurations of the networks are compared and the most relevant differences are discussed. Moreover, the information content behaviour is computed to investigate the connection between sensors network topology and its ability to withstand the presence of undesired signals (e.g., noise) during the measurements. The results here illustrated may be useful for sensors network design for this special class of structures