Low Cost Real Time Temperature Monitoring System for Concrete using

Wireless Sensors
K.Thiruvasagar 1, P.Banugoban 2, P.Vishnu 3*, K.J.C.Kumara 4, C.S.Lewangamage 5
1 Postgraduate student, Department of Civil Engineering, University of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka.
2
Graduate, Department of Civil Engineering, University of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka.
3
Research Associate, Department of Civil Engineering, University of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka.
4
Senior Lecturer, Department of Mechanical & Manufacturing Engineering, University of Ruhuna,
Sri Lanka.
5
Senior Lecturer, Department of Civil Engineering, University of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka.
# P.Vishnu; <aayilyan1@gmail.com>

ABSTRACT — Structural health monitoring (SHM) has to that of wired sensing system (Kim et al., 2006). However,
become an inevitable part in a life span of a structure due such a wireless sensor based real time monitoring system
to its potential to ensure the public safety and to increase for health monitoring of civil infrastructures has not yet
the life span of the structure. Monitoring any kind of been developed and used in Sri Lanka.
structures for various parameters, using wireless smart
sensors has gained popularity in recent past. This paper The development of high temperatures in fresh concrete
discusses the development of low cost real time wireless could cause detrimental effects to long-term concrete
smart sensor monitoring system to monitor early age performance. High concrete temperatures accelerate the
concrete temperature in real time. Internal temperature of rate of hydration and cause the concrete to undergo
two standard size concrete cubes cast using two concrete drying shrinkage cracking (Schindler & Frank Mccullough,
mixes (Mix1, Mix2) were measured in real time for 24 2002).When temperature reduces, the hydration process
hours using DS18B20 sensors connected with the slows down and concrete does not set properly which
NodeMcu, which is an open source IoT platform. would affect the strength of concrete. Increased rate of
Temperature measurements were saved and visualized in hydration in thick elements could create higher core
real time using ThingSpeakTM which is an open IoT online temperature within structural element. Higher core
platform with MATLAB analytics. The temperature sensor temperatures will create temperature differentials when
DS18B20 was selected such that it is suitable to measure ambient temperature differs from core temperature.
temperature readings of the concrete without any Higher temperature differentials could cause cracking, loss
interference of the chemical reactions in concrete. of structural integrity, thus shortening the life span by
Calibration methods and temperature variation with decreasing the strength of the concrete. Higher
different concrete mixes are also discussed. It could be temperature around 70oC is the key factor for Delayed
seen that wireless temperature monitoring system Ettringite Formation (DEF) which could lead to cracking of
performed adequately and it can be considered as a better concrete with the presence of water in long run and this
low cost alternative for traditional wired temperature could be significant when concrete element is larger.
monitoring system. Concrete temperature is also used in identification of
corrosion of steel reinforcement, which also strengthens
Keywords — Structural Health Monitoring, the vitality of monitoring temperature.
Wireless smart sensors, Wireless temperature
monitoring system, Concrete, low cost. Main constituent minerals to cement are Tricalcium
I. INTRODUCTION aluminate (C3A), Tricalcium Silicate (C3S), Dicalcium
Structural health monitoring (SHM) is a new paradigm Silicate (C2S) and tetra calcium aluminoferrite (C4AF.C3A )
which incorporates automated systems for data which reacts very fast with water with an exothermic
acquisition for monitoring, analysing and identification of reaction that increases the temperature at a higher rate.
structural defects (Sun et al. 2010). It enhances the In order to slowdown the effect from C3A, gypsum is added
structural safety and significantly reduces lifetime to cement. The presence of OH- and SO42- allows the
operating costs by early detection of defects for formation of primary ettringite (C3A.3CaSO4.2H2O.32H2O)
maintenance (Farrar et al. 2007). Data resulting from which is later converted to Mono sulphate hydrate
deploying sensors, could also be used for design (Dayarathne et al., 2013). Ettringite formation in fresh
optimization, retrofitting and replacement of structural concrete does not cause any adverse effects because of
elements. Dense arrays of sensors were used to monitor the plastic nature of concrete. But it can cause significant
structures at the initial stage of the development of such effect if it forms during hardened stage of concrete. Hence
SHM system which was very expensive and non-versatile it is important to measure the temperature of concrete at
(Hongki et al. 2010). The attractive features in wireless least during first 24 hours to ensure, prevailing
SHM are real time processing, low cost, easy to install temperature of fresh concrete is within the limit 70oC.
with less space accommodated, and performance similar
 II. WIRELESS SMART SENSORS transfer to cloud data base easier and fast. Storing data in
Wireless smart health monitoring system is a new cloud not only secures the data but also it allows to
substitute for the traditional tethered monitoring system monitor the data from anywhere of the world along with
(Lynch, 2006). With the introduction of new electronic analytical graphs and other interactive features.
systems with high processing power and remote sensing
ability, wireless monitoring system(WMS) has become an Wireless smart sensors could be an attractive solution.
attractive solution for SHM. Noel et al. (2017) compared However, the success of that depends on the way it is
the advantages and disadvantages of wireless smart connected with sensors, nature of sensors, electronic
sensing method with the traditional tethered method. design, power supply, telecommunication protocol etc.
Traditional wired sensing methods are labour intensive (Norberto B. et al., 2013) describes some main challenges
due to its complicated arrangement of long wires, which is faced when a wireless temperature and humidity sensing
a major contributing factor for the higher cost involved. unit was deployed in real structures. In addition to afore
Wired sensing networks usually takes several days to mentioned factors there were some other challenges such
deploy because, running of wires through structure as inability of temperature sensor to sustain with the
without invasion of space is not an easy task. alkaline environment and selecting a proper casing for the
monitoring system to protect PCB and transmission unit in
Apart from its attractive features, WMS has inherent order to prevent current leakages and short circuiting.
challenges which is currently overcome with the
development technology in electronics and III. METHODOLOGY
telecommunication. Wireless sensing network has nodes SHM includes many common steps irrespective of the
which consists of required sensors connected with PCB, parameters and the structures we monitor. The flow chart
and wireless transmission portion such as Wi-Fi module. below (Figure 1) depicts the critical steps in monitoring a
These nodes generally run on battery power, which needs structure for a given parameter, which is identified to be
regular recharging, thus resulting in regular maintenance critical. In this particular research the flow starts from
requirements. Wireless sensing network has lesser band identification of concrete specimens and ends with the
width compared to wired method, but it does not have real time online visualization.
significant impact in data transfer because in SHM systems, Monitoring of temperature of concrete is important in Sri
data transfer rate requirements are lesser. Even with Lankan context because Concrete is widely used in
10bits resolution of data with data acquisition frequency construction industry in Sri Lanka. In this experiment,
1kz the data transfer rate would be 125Bytes/s. Fresh concrete samples were selected at their plastic stage.
1000 𝑠𝑎𝑚𝑝𝑙𝑒𝑠 10𝑏𝑖𝑡𝑠 1𝐵𝑦𝑡𝑒 Appropriate mix proportion is essential to meet the
𝑋 𝑋 = 125 𝑏𝑦𝑡𝑒𝑠/𝑠 concrete strength and the durability requirements. Two
𝑠𝑒𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑑 𝑠𝑎𝑚𝑝𝑙𝑒 8 𝑏𝑖𝑡𝑠
types of concrete Sample mixes (Mix1 and Mix2) were
In other words, it would only be 0.125kB/s whereas selected with different cement contents, in order to
modern transmission wireless protocols can even transfer observe clear difference in peak temperatures. Cement
in a rate of 100 MB/s. Another main challenge in wireless content of Mix2 was selected such that it is higher than
monitoring is synchronization of data, due to its lesser Mix1.Two concrete cubes of standard size (150mm x 150
speed whereas wired monitoring systems are much more mm x150mm) were cast using Mix1 and Mix2. Table 1
reliable as far as synchronization is concerned. shows the mix proportions of Mix1 and Mix2.

Wireless smart sensing technology suits Civil engineering In the next step, proper sensor was selected in order to
structures well, due to its easiness of handling and long meet the accuracy level required. Several wireless
range transmission of data. The first ever structure with temperature sensors such as SHT15, SHT21S, SHT71,
high number of sensor nodes with proper PCB designs and BOTDR, Raman OTDR, Rayleigh OFDR/OBR, FBG, and
network protocol is Golden Gate Bridge (Noel et al., 2017) DS18B20 were considered. In order to select an
which was successfully monitored irrespective of its size. appropriate sensor several factors such as cost, ability to
Data were collected at a sample rate of 1 kHz where the perform in severe environments, power supply and range
sensitivity of accelerometer was 500 µG. The data of temperature that the sensor can sustain, were
collected were impressively synchronized with 10 µs jitter. considered. Since the temperature measurements are
related to concrete, high accuracy is not required. An
Since this research only consider one node and the accuracy of 0.5oC with the range of 10oC to 80oC is
parameter monitored was temperature, there were not sufficient for monitoring of concrete temperatures.
any significant invasive disturbances for the readings
taken. Silveira and Bonho (2016) implemented a wireless
temperature monitoring system using IEEE 802.15.4 (Wi-
Fi) protocol where data was successfully transferred in the
range of 50 m out door and 20 m indoor. Using Wi-Fi
makes higher data transfer possible. Wi-Fi is suitable for
local area networks and it is now incorporated with day to
day devices such as smart phones, which makes the data
 to the other aforementioned sensors. Table 2 shows the
specifications of the DS18B20 sensor.
Selecting the target structure/specimen that
need to be monitored. (Mix1 and Mix2) Table 2. Specifications of DS18B20

Specifications Range
Voltage supply 3V -5.5 V
Identification of critical parameters o be Sensing temperature range -55°C ~ 125°C
monitored Accuracy - Highest (Lowest) ±0.5°C
(Temperature of fresh concrete) Sensor type Digital

The typical method used in Sri Lanka to monitor

Selection of suitable sensors temperature of concrete is thermo-couple based data
logging system. Thermocouples are tethered with data
loggers using wires. This method is very expensive because
Firm ware and hard ware design of the higher cost involved with data loggers and man
hours required to install and onsite collection of data.

Instrumentation and assembling the circuit

Calibration of sensors (laboratory level)

Data channels

Real time online monitoring of parameters

Visualization of Data
Figure 1: Methodology of the experiment
Figure 2: Typical data logging systems used in temperature
monitoring.
Table 1. Mix proportion for Mix1 and Mix2.
Table 3 compares the cost involved in both thermocouple
Mix1 Mix2 based data logging system and WMS used in this research.
Material used Another attractive feature in WMS was, it consumed less
(kg/m3) (kg/m3)
Cement 385 711
current at the node level which could also be powered by
a battery.
Water 154 284
Coarse Aggregate 1291 1007 According to the system design, electricity consumption
for one sensor operation unit annually is calculated as
Fine Aggregate 859 681
follows:

Temperature sensor, DS18B20 was selected to monitor

the temperature because of its casing which ensures the Monitoring interval = 10minutes.
protection from severe alkali environment. This sensor can Then per one hour = 6 data.
measure temperatures in the range from -55°C to +125°C Per one day (6 x 24) = 144 data.
(-67°F to +257°F) with ±0.5°C accuracy in the range of 10°C Power consumption per day = 0.048 mAh.
to +85°C. DS18B20 sensor can be powered by an external Sleeping mode = 2.3999 mAh.
supply on the Vcc pin. External power supply was used to Annual power consumption = 893.505 mAh.
power the sensor because power supply using USB is not
reliable in higher temperatures. DS18B20 does not sustain
communications due to the higher leakage currents which
exist at these temperatures. For applications in which high
temperatures are likely, it is strongly recommended to use
direct power supply. DS18B20 was very cheap compared
Table 3. Cost comparison (Main components only) of dense
wired method and wireless monitoring method.

Thermocouple based wired data logging system

Data logger Rs. 600,000

Thermocouple wire k-Type 4m Rs. 800

Total Rs. 600,800

Wireless system
Sensor (DS 18B20) Rs. 150

Node MCU Rs. 900

Other Circuit components Rs. 800 Online Visualization

Total Rs. 1,850

Figure 3: Sensed Data flow

Once the sensor type is selected the circuit was designed

with the main components. The main components in the
circuit contains sensor, micro controller, communication Casing
units and power supply to the circuit. The collected data
flows as depicted in Figure 3 below. Instrumentation and
assembling the circuit with the actual components carried
out after the completion of the circuit design. NodeMcu
version 1.0 (NodeMCU Documentation, 2018) is selected
as a master controller since it contains the specified Wi-Fi Bread
module in itself. NodeMcu is programmed using Aruduino board
IDE (Integrated development environment). Figure 4
shows the connected DS18B20 sensor with NodeMcu. The Figure4.NodeMcu connected with temperature
setup was later encompassed in proper casing. PCB board sensor and full setup with casing.
was not required because of the simplicity of the
experiment set up and bread board was used in order to
implement the circuit design. Figure 5 shows the final
product after encompassing circuit where dual data Power (Red)
channel was used in order to collect two different flows of Ground wire
data. The yellow colour wire indicates where the data (black)
cable of the sensor should be connected whereas red and
black indicate the power supply and ground, respectively.
The WMS was calibrated using thermocouple based
temperature monitoring system before monitoring USB cable
concrete temperature. Then, it was used to measure the Data wire
temperature of Mix1 and similarly another set of 3 wires
(Yellow)
and a sensor were connected to the system in order to
take measurements of Mix2. It was programmed so that
the data from each mix could be collected alternatively in
10 minute intervals assuming the concrete temperature
does not vary significantly during this interval. Then
Obtained results were initially established within a local
network and an online open source plate form
Thingthinkspeak.com (IoT Analytics - ThingSpeak Internet
Figure5. Dual data channel wireless temperature monitoring
of Things, 2017) was used to monitor the temperature
system.
variations in real time online. Figure 6 shows both Mix1
and Mix2 samples being monitored for temperature using
WMS.
 DS18B20 sensors

Figure6. Laboratory test set up of monitoring temperature of

samples using wireless system.
Figure 7. Compares the temperature between two grades of
concrete.
The experiment was carried out for continuous 24 hours
in order to monitor the concrete temperature during The results of the calibration tests displayed that the initial
plastic stage and hardened stage. temperatures monitored using the DS18B20 and
IV. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION thermocouple based temperature monitoring system was
Temperature of both types of mixes were visualized in real more or less same for both grade of concrete, with a
time in Thingspeak blocks. Then the data were extracted maximum variation of only 0.3 oC throughout the
and combined in order to compare. Table 4 shows the experiment.
inner temperature reading of concrete obtained using As expected, the temperature of Mix2 was always slightly
WMS for both Mix1 and Mix2 for 24 hours, using higher than that of Mix1, due to the higher cement
calibrated wireless temperature monitoring system. content in Mix2. Maximum temperature difference
Figure 7 shows how the temperature of Mix1 and Mix2 observed was 2.63oC. The absolute maximum
vary against time. temperature measured during the experiment was 33.38
o
C (Mix2). The observed temperature rise values were not
that significant since the size of tested concrete elements
Table 4. Reading obtained using wireless monitoring system were small in size.
(WMS) for 24 hours period
V. CONCLUSION
Temperature of Temperature of This paper discussed about a low cost wireless
Time (minute)
Mix1 (oC) Mix2(oC) temperature monitoring system for concrete developed
using DS18B20 temperature sensor and Nodemcu IoT
0 30 30.5
platform. Data visualization has been carried out on thing
120 29.05 29 speak IoT online application. This system was calibrated
using thermocouple based temperature monitoring
240 29.31 29.5
system at laboratory level. It has been shown that
360 29.95 31.25 proposed low cost wireless system performed adequately
and could be used as a replacement for wired temperature
480 30.57 33.15
monitoring system.
600 30.75 33.38
720 30.3 32.75

840 29.8 31.25

960 29.5 30.5

1080 29.25 30.12

1200 30.05 31

1320 30.25 31.125

1440 30.2 31.25
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