Utilizing an Arduino-Based Accelerometer in Civil Engineering Applications in Undergraduate Education

One of the most important issues in civil engineering undergraduate education is response analysis of structures for earthquake-resistant design. Precautions that should be taken against seismic hazards not only include the design of earthquake-safe buildings but also monitoring the strength and dynamic characteristics of structures. Because this is an important topic in theoretical aspects of civil engineering education at the undergraduate level, it is essential to have opportunities to perform practices so students can better understand lectures. In the Gebze Technical University (GTU) Civil Engineering Department, we guide our undergraduate students to graduate as competent engineers who use practice tools. For this purpose, we designed an Arduino-based accelerometer device and its software toolkit, which records and visualizes structural vibration data in the process of learning the best practices of seismic safety. The device contains Arduino UNO board ADXL345 MEMS (microelectromechanical systems) Accelerometer and microSD card module. Both Arduino and Python open-source programming languages were implemented in the device. We have produced a total number of 15 accelerometers (named the ACCE_edu-Arduino based accelerometer for Civil Engineering education) integrating these cards and sensors that are widely used for vibration measurement and interpretation to record vibration data. Within the scope of “Python programming” lectures in the GTU undergraduate program, these toolkits will be used to obtain data that would be recorded, stored, visualized, and filtered using Python programming language, which provides a practical application in data processing.