Integrated survey approaches for monitoring procedures during yard phases

Buildings, construction sites and civil structures need an accurate, continuous, and real time monitoring system. This necessity arises to detect dangerous situations for the structures and any occupant, especially during natural or anthropogenic events such as earthquakes or delicate phases of invasive operations such as excavations for piling. During these situations, the static and dynamic conditions of a structure and everything related to it could be impaired. The analysis and evaluation of significant displacements and deformation parameters, which are fundamental for structural controls and health monitoring, can be approached following different exchangeable procedures. Among the non-destructive monitoring techniques used in recent years, such as in this research, wireless sensors, are having a remarkable development in detecting anomalies. The acquisition of significant deformation parameters is obtained starting from the traditional topographic survey by total station and using static and dynamic sensors. Monitoring equipment concerns three-axial wireless tiltmeters which allow to measure accurately any angle of inclination in the points where they are installed in order to monitor kinematic movements during yard phases. The main purpose of this experiment is to compare data collected by tiltmeters with those obtained by the robotic total station. Three-axial accelerometers are also installed to obtain the acceleration value of the different reference points. By processing the collected data, it is proved that the final results are comparable, despite using different and completely independent monitoring systems. These integrated survey approaches demonstrate the effectiveness and efficiency of designing a monitoring system based on sensors that are installed to observe changing phenomena over the time, especially during delicate phases of invasive operations, which may represent a more widespread low-cost and reliable solution.