Civil Engineering ETDs

Publication Date

Spring 5-16-2026

Abstract

Structural vibration measurements are important in engineering because a structure’s frequency response reflects its stiffness, boundary conditions, and overall health. Tracking these responses can help identify early signs of stiffness loss, contact, or damage. Missing these indicators of change can lead to premature failure, reduced efficiency, and safety issues both in the laboratory and in service. Traditional sensing tools often struggle to capture these behaviors. These limitations motivate the use of neuromorphic event-based sensors. This thesis presents a framework for event-based vibration analysis using two complementary methods. The first method produces pixel-level spatial frequency maps. The second method uses event-density to automatically generate regions of interest (ROIs). A consensus-locking step stabilizes the dominant frequency when event activity becomes sparse, uneven, or affected by contrast changes. The findings of this thesis provide initial guidance that introduces neuromorphic sensing to the community of experimental sensing and dynamics for further investigation. The methods developed here can be used in the context of nonlinear system identification and near–real-time frequency tracking in structural dynamics and structural health monitoring applications.

Keywords

Neuromorphic imaging, Region of Interest (ROI), nonlinear, asynchronous sensing, spatial mapping

Document Type

Thesis

Language

English

Degree Name

Civil Engineering

Level of Degree

Masters

Department Name

Civil Engineering

First Committee Member (Chair)

Fernando Moreu

Second Committee Member

Rafiqul Tarefder

Third Committee Member

Tariq Khraishi

Fourth Committee Member

Deborah Fowler

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Available for download on Tuesday, May 16, 2028

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