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Smart Cities Symposium Prague 2017

Smart Building Monitoring


From Structure to Indoor Environment
J. Včelák, A. Vodička, M. Maška, J. Mrňa

 brought special requirements for construction monitoring.


Abstract—Buildings became complex systems where there are There are many materials commonly used in construction of the
various technologies integrated together and thus should work as buildings based on wood. Oriented Strand Boards (OSB), glue
a single system. Modern building has several monitoring and laminated timber (GLT), cross laminated timber (CLT) became
control systems which should cooperate together to achieve energy
standard building materials not only for residential building
saving while keeping indoor comfort and healthy environment.
The overall building management systems (BMS) provides an sector also administrative buildings. The number of multi-
integrated way to gather data from the building and issue control storey residential and commercial wooden buildings is
commands to the installed technology. The parameters that are constantly growing and the requirements for construction
monitored in modern buildings are not only temperature and monitoring is also growing rapidly [1]. The safety issues of the
humidity but todays buildings monitor also concentration values living in building is one side of the coin while the healthy indoor
of CO2 or volatile organic compounds (VOC). The experience
from last decades shows necessity to monitor also the structure of
environment is the other side.
the building. Renewable materials (wood) are today often used for
building construction. This material is quite sensitive to Internet of Things (IoT) introduces new communication
environmental factors like humidity and the environment has to possibilities which are well suited for low power, long range,
be monitored in order to avoid structural health problems in low data rate communication within urban areas.
future. Specially timber when exposed to humidity or moisture can Communication technologies like LoRa, Sigfox or LTE-M
degrade quite quickly and can lose load capacity. Modern
communication technologies allows installation of many sensors
became available in most EU countries and many other
directly into the structure which allows continuous monitoring of countries are currently working on the development. This
the building construction as well as the indoor climate in the communication technologies are exactly designed for sensor
building. Internet of Things (IoT) allows new communication systems where the low energy consumptions as well as low long
technologies providing low cost, low power sensor application battery operation time is required. Environment monitoring or
within smartcity sector . building structure monitoring are cases where this technology
could be applied with success.
If we consider smart-buildings as a part of the smartcity
Index Terms—Structural health monitoring, SHM, wooden
moisture, building sensors, indoor air quality concept then we have to implement monitoring systems as well
as intelligent control systems directly into the buildings and use
the information/data to improve energy efficiency of the
I. INTRODUCTION building, improve living comfort for the users as well as safety
features of the building. The building structure could be smart
B UILDINGS are one of the most important part of human
live. Average man in civilized world spends 90% of its
time indoor. Therefore the indoor environment influences the
itself and can have integrated diagnostic functions to prevent
possible threats which can harm the structure, change the
mechanical properties, cause increase of energy consumption,
human health, mood and behavior. On the other hand buildings
increase maintenance or repair costs, or create a health risk for
are responsible for 40% of total consumed energy. The goals
the users.
of the EU in energy savings by 2020 appeared to be non-
Following cases will show examples of smart-structure and
realistic although valid legislation forces developers and
environment monitoring applications developed by Czech
investors to build energy efficient buildings. National subsidy
Technical University in Prague - University Center for Energy
programs support energy savings solutions covering improved
Efficient Buildings (CTU-UCEEB).
thermal properties of the building envelope, technologies like
heat recovery or heat pumps or installation of renewable energy
sources or energy storage solutions.
Increased using of wood in construction of the buildings

This work was supported by MŠMT within NPU I program No. LO1605 – J. Včelák, A. Vodička, M, Maška and J. Mrňa are with Czech Technical
University Center for Energy Efficient Buildings. University in Prague – University Center for Energy Efficient Buildings,
Třinecká 1024, Buštěhrad, Czech Republic (e-mail: jan.vcelak@cvut.cz).

978-1-5386-3825-5/17/$31.00 ©2017 IEEE


II. STRUCTURE AND BUILDING MONITORING USING IOT 𝐴 𝐵
1

𝑀𝑅 = (𝑅 ) (2)
A. Moisture monitoring of wooden constructions
Wood is one of the most common material for building
constructions. Usage of wood as a main construction material The sensor consists of the stainless steel screw electrodes which
for houses in different countries is shown in the figure 1 are used to penetrate the monitored wooden construction and to
[1],[2],[3]. fix the sensor on its position. These screw electrodes also
ensure good electrical contact to the measured material. The
90 whole system consists of sensors deployed in the building
80 structure (figure 2) and central unit which gathers the data from
the sensors, processes data locally and send them to the cloud
Wooden buildign share [%]

70 database where there are evaluated and presented to the user.


60 The data from the monitored building can be also sent via LoRa,
Sigfox or internet enabled programmable logical controller
50
(PLC).
40 The real measured humidity data in the structure of wooden
30
family house are presented in figure 3. The detected problems
identified by the Moistureguard system are marked with red
20 color. The leakage was localized later in the house after detailed
10 inspection of bathroom.

Fig. 1. Share of wooden construction material on total house production in


different countries [2][3]

Wood is used in many forms covering OSB, CLT, GLT and


many other. Although the wood processing and protection,
impregnation technology improved a lot within past years,
wood as a construction material is very sensitive to ambient
environment. Longer exposition of the wood to high humidity
and moisture levels will result in wood decay. Increased Fig. 2. Moistureguard sensor for monitoring wood moisture level [4]
humidity and moisture levels might be caused by installation
failures, user behavior, and poor quality of the construction
works or by bad design of the building envelope.
Since the inner part of the structure is not commonly visible
to the user, since it is covered by plaster or other type of boards,
monitoring of physical properties directly in the structure is
very useful. Such functionality is provided by MoistureGuard
system designed by CTU-UCEEB. System consists of number
of sensors deployed in the wooden construction connected
together with digital bus RS-485 with protocol Modbus RTU.
These sensors became part of the construction and provide
measurement of wood moisture level, air humidity and
temperature in the cavities or breathable insulation material in
the construction. The measurement of the moisture is based on Fig. 3. Humidity in wooden building structure measured by Moistureguard
the measurement of wood resistance which is strongly system, alarming evets marked by red color, leakage of water through hydro
dependent on wood moisture. Influence of the weight moisture insulation layer proven later by detailed inspection
content MR (%) on the resistance could be approximated by
equation (1) where R is resistance, A and B are calibration
constants of the measuring setup. The Moisture level can be
then calculated using equation (2)[4].

𝑅 = 𝐴 ∙ 𝑀𝑅𝐵 (1)
B. Smart GLT with integrated FBG monitoring
GLT is commonly used as a material for roof constructions for
bigger buildings covering ware-houses, sport centers,
swimming pools etc.. GLT is rarely used for family house
construction. The reason is that it is more expensive than
standard massive timber and usually there are no requirements
for long construction beams like in case of halls. The main
advantages of GLT are quality control by selection of higher
strength class wooden pieces, unlimited shape and length
definition according to customer preferences.
Smart GLT structure is equipped with optic fibers with
integrated Fiber Brag Grating structure which is used to
measure mechanical strain of the GLT. The optic fibers are
integrated in the GLT directly during GLT manufacturing
process.
Block diagram of external unit is shown in figure 4. Unit Fig. 4. Block diagram of SmartGLT monitoring test setup with FBG sensors
[5]
consists of optical broad band laser which supplies the light into
the optic fiber. The light is travelling in the fiber to the FBG
structure where only part of the light is reflected back to the
optical spectrum analyzer. The central wavelength of the
reflected light depends on the mechanical strain applied to the
FBG structure glued in GLT. Mechanical strain ε can be
determined from the measured values of the reflected
wavelengths according to equation (3):

Δ𝜆𝐵
𝜀𝜆 = (3)
𝜆𝐵 ∙ (1 − 𝜌𝑒 )

where λB is Bragg wavelength of the sensor inside the unloaded Fig. 5. Example of GLT beam with integrated FBG sensor and output signal
from spectral analyzer.
sample, ΔλB is difference of the Bragg wavelength before and
after loading of the sample and ρe is photoelastic coefficient
dependent on effective refractive index, Poisson's ratio and
photo-elastic tensor components [5]. The sensors could be
chained in to a string which can monitor several wooden beams C. Monitoring of indoor air quality using IoT enabled sensor
at the same time. platform
Indoor air quality is problem of many administrative as well as
residential buildings. The fact that average human spends 90%
The optical signal is processed locally and the information is of his live indoor is forcing facility managers, owners and users
sent using IoT to the operator or owner. Warning or alarms are to focus on the indoor environment quality. Terms as “Sick
triggered only in the case that the mechanical load exceeds the Building Syndrome” defined in last decade of 20th century
thresholds. The presented system works as an early warning points to the global problem of indoor environment [7]. Indoor
system for detection of construction overloading. Output of the environment is characterized usually by four basic categories:
system and connection to the GLT beam with integrated FBG
sensors is shown in figure 5. - thermal environment
- indoor air quality
- acoustical environment
- lightning environment
112
26

(°C)
24

Temp (°C)
Teplota
TABLE I 22
INDOOR AIR QUALITY PARAMETERS

Parameter Comfort range Unit 20


02/23 02/24 02/25
Temperature 20-27 °C Datum
Date

Relative Humidity 30-70 % RH


3000
CO2 concentration max 1500 ppm

CO2 (ppm)
2500
VOC concentration 0,5 mg/m3 2000

3 1500
Particle matter PM10 – 40 µg/m
(annual average) PM2,5 - 25 1000

02/23 02/24 02/25


Datum
Date

Sensing of complex lightning conditions or acoustical Fig. 6. Temperature and CO2 levels in regional high school – Czech Republic
environment is quite ambitious and requires special expensive
hardware. On the other hand air quality sensors are already
available on the market. Therefore the team from CTU-UCEEB control and
The main parameters which are measured are temperature monitoring group decided to develop all-in-one IoT enabled
(T), relative humidity (RH), CO2 concentration level, volatile sensor platform which can be used for complex monitoring of
organic compounds (VOC) or particle matters (PM). These indoor air quality and can communicate to building
variables are quite often measured and sometimes are used for management system as well as to IoT networks using plug-in
active control of the building technology. The common values modules for LoRa, Sigfox or IQRF. The parameters measured
for comfort indoor environment are given in TABLE I. are temperature, relative air humidity, CO2 concentration, VOC
concentration. The result of development is shown in figure 7.
Detailed monitoring of the indoor environment is not Since the device uses several electrochemical sensors the
common in buildings. Temperature and air humidity are often overall consumption is not well suitable for long term-battery
measured. In last years also the CO2 levels are in interest of operation and thus external power supply is available.
building users. VOC reading are also in interest since buildings
are equipped with furniture, paints, carpets and other possible
contaminants rich on organic compounds.

Figure 6 presents CO2 and temperature levels measured


within 3 days in high school in Czech Republic. The
concentration exceeds the limits given by valid standards in all
presented days and in certain periods are very close to
dangerous limits of 3000ppm. This situation is alarming.
Unfortunately such values could be measured in many other
schools without ventilation and air handling units.

Spreading IoT technology allows easy and cheap installation


of the sensors as well as accessible wide spread communication Fig. 7. Developed UCEEB sensor platform to measure T, RH, CO2, VOC
within a single device with selectable interface Modbus, LoRa, Sigfox, IQRF
technology. The main benefit of new IoT telecommunication
interfaces within smartcities is that the user does not need to
install their own data infrastructure and can use battery operated
III. CONCLUSION
temporarily or permanently deployed sensors. The low power
of the sensors and good signal availability within cities allows Internet of Things allows many new applications which can
installation of sensor nodes to measure outdoor as well as make cities more livable and increase comfort of inhabitants.
indoor environment quality. There are already many sensor of They can help to gather enormous amount of new useful data.
individual parameters or some of their combinations. In order to create the smartcity it is necessary to start from smart
Nevertheless combination of all sensors evaluating indoor air elements from which they consist of. Structure of the buildings
quality in a single device is still missing on the market. with real time measurement and early warning systems is one
of the components which can be easily integrated with smart
home systems or control systems of larger building. It can work A. Vodička born in Odolena Voda, Czech
as a early warning systems together with other security and Republic, in 1990. He received the Ing. (M.Sc.
safety system as fire, flooding or theft alarms. equivalent) degree in electrical engineering with
focus on Cybernetics, robotics and sensors from
Smart buildings and structures are one of the most promising
the Czech Technical University in Prague in
applications and also are important parts of the smartcity
2015. He is working as a researcher at
concept. Monitoring of building structure and indoor
University Centre for Energy Efficient
environment can bring savings on maintenance cost as well as
Buildings of CTU in Prague since 2014. His
improve safety of citizens and building users. Monitoring self
focus is development of intelligent sensors for building from A
is not sufficient to avoid risks but is a first necessary step to
to Z – development of sensors (electronics, hardware, software,
create systems for complex building monitoring including the
mechanics), its deployment, calibration, installation,
structure and indoor environment. The gate for implementation
maintenance etc.
of new sensor and other applications is open and very attractive
for all stakeholders. Three different applications of structure
and building monitoring were introduced in this article. All of M. Maška born in Prague in 1988. He graduated
them are using advanced IoT communication technologies from Faculty of Electrical Engineering, CTU in
which were introduced in past years and currently are built over Prague, master program Cybernetics and
Czech Republic. The applications of smart sensing introduced Robotics - Sensors and Instrumentation. During
above are piloted in Czech Republic and Austria. his studies he developed electronics and
programmed software as a freelancer. In July
ACKNOWLEDGMENT 2014 he joined UCEEB where he worked on a his
This work was supported by MŠMT within NPU I program diploma thesis focused on a complex system for measuring
No. LO1605 – University Center for Energy Efficient moisture in buildings. Since October 2015 he have a full time
Buildings. job at UCEEB and he is working here on various projects
concerning mainly the sensor systems, databases and control
systems.
REFERENCES
J. Mrňa, born in Prague in 1991. At the
[1] Ministerial Conference on the Protection of Forests in Europe, Europeans
and wood – What do Europeans think about wood and its uses?, moment he studies master degree program
http://www.foresteurope.org Electronics and Communication - Radio and
[2] UNESE - Food and Agriculture Organization of United Nations, Forest optical technology. During his studies he
Products – Annual Market Review 2015-2016, UNITED NATIONS
PUBLICATIONS, eISBN 978-92-1-058365-7
participated as a programmer in several
[3] Czech Association of prefabricated houses manufacturers, projects, including CloPeMa and SfM.
http://www.drevoastavby.cz/drevostavby-archiv/, 2016 Currently he works for UCEEB as an electronics designer on a
[4] A. Vodička, M. Maška, J. Včelák, P. Mlejnek, Sensor system for combined air quality sensor.
continuous moisture monitoringin wooden buildings and structures,
World konference on timber engineering 2016, Vienna, Austria, 2016
[5] L. Velebil, R. Zelený, J. Včelák, M. Dvořák, P. Kuklík, M. Terebesyová,
M. Olbrich, Optical fibre sensors as a potential solution for monitoring of
wooden structures, World conference on timber engineering 2016,
Vienna, Austria, 2016
[6] Y.J. Rao, Fiber Bragg grating sensors: principles and applications. In:
Optical Fiber Sensor Technology, vol. 2, Chapman & Hall, London, 355–
389, 1998.
[7] Redlich C. A., Sparer J., Cullen M.R. Sick-Building Syndrome, The
Lancet, vol. 349, number 9057, p965-1036, 1997

J. Včelák born in Kladno Czech Republic 1979.


He received Ph.D. in measurement and
instrumentation in 2007 on Czech Technical
University in Prague, Faculty of electrical
engineering. He spent 4 years in Tyndall NI, Cork,
Ireland as postdoc researcher and now he works
on CTU – University center for energy efficient buildings as a
head of department of Monitoring and control of intelligent
buildings. His expertise is mainly in sensor systems, renewable
energy sources, smart city and IoT, signal processing and
control and monitoring. He is author or co-author of more than
20 publications, 5+ patents and utility models.

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