Vibration measurement and monitoring play a pivotal role in the field of civil engineering. Buildings and other structures may be subjected to vibrations from different sources, such as road traffic, rail traffic, nearby worksites or mines; in the case of large structures such as bridges, levees and high-rises, seismic events and strong winds.
The vibrations produced by these elements can cause structural damage and create distress to nearby residents.
Although tunnel construction monitoring can generally be regarded as a special type of construction site monitoring, it does show several characteristics that make it a separate case.
In this type of construction, the safety of the structure plays a far greater role compared to other structures. Structural subsidence and the consequent possibility of structural collapse represent a crucial problem for workers, not to mention the high costs of the machines being used. From a system perspective, it is essential that monitoring is carried out simultaneously throughout a series of points along a very long stretch, in which a local power source may not always be available.
Monitoring data must be gathered for all the vibrations and for all of the alerts in case of a severe events and such data must be available at all times. To achieve this, it is necessary to have direct access to the measurement instruments, which is not always an easy option. Having said all that, the GEA II System is the ideal solution. Multiple sensors (up to 20) can be placed simultaneously from a single central unit across a very large area of up to 2 kilometers in diameter.
Each sensor is powered by the same cable used for data transmission. This solves the issue of potential lack of a local power supply. The central unit can be installed in a safe location with adequate protective systems and a UPS in case electricity is not available. Remote control is ensured by modern systems such as routers and/or LAN connections. Moreover, even in the absence of a connection, the station can activate backup systems automatically, thanks to output relays that can be managed using various logics, depending on the monitoring point.
Sequoia IT offers advanced solutions for this monitoring field, such as the GEA Line. Read more.
