A sensor selection framework for vibration based structural health monitoring of civil infrastructure

Vibration-based Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) of civil infrastructure has matured into a multi-platform discipline in which the practising engineer can choose between conventional wired piezoelectric and force-balance chains, dedicated wireless smart-sensor networks (WSSNs), and time-synchronised consumer-smartphone arrays. In practice the choice is rarely made on the basis of a documented selection rubric. This review consolidates the state of the art across the three sensing paradigms and proposes a framework that translates structural and operational requirements into a defensible platform selection. Following a systematic literature search whose methodology is reported explicitly, 216 unique peer-reviewed sources spanning 1973–2026 are synthesised, with emphasis on the post-2020 literature. The review covers the fundamentals of operational modal analysis (OMA), forced vibration testing and modal-mass recovery; the metrology of piezoelectric, IEPE, force-balance, MEMS (including recent ultra-low-noise devices), fibre-optic, GNSS, and vision-based sensors; wireless network architecture, communication, precision-clock and GNSS synchronisation; smartphone sensing, including operating-system sampling constraints and the absence of a user-controlled analogue anti-alias front end; data acquisition, noise-floor, and calibration practice; identification methods; and full-scale deployment experience across the principal civil structural classes. Three original contributions are developed. First, an evidence-based comparative matrix of platform attributes is consolidated, supported by structured application tables that list, for each tier, the monitored structure, the instrumentation employed, and the source reference. Second, a structure-class application guide maps each principal typology to a default sensing tier with explicit escalation triggers. Third, a five-decision selection rubric is proposed, anchored on a phase-error model that converts a residual inter-device timing offset $$\delta $$ into a frequency-dependent phase distortion $$\Delta \varphi (f)=2\pi f\delta $$ of the cross-spectral density matrix; this analysis explains, on physical grounds, why low-frequency, strongly excited civil structures are accessible to smartphone arrays despite millisecond-class synchronisation, and why weak-ambient, amplitude-governed, or wide-band problems remain the province of wired and hardware-synchronised wireless instrumentation. The framework, the accompanying instrumentation tables, and a condensed practitioner summary are intended as a transparent bridge between the sensing literature and routine SHM practice.