Advancements and Innovations

in Instrumentation Systems for

Real-Time Monitoring of
Geo-Hazards
W. Allen Marr, PhD, P.E.
Thomas Allen Tye, P.E.
Geocomp Corporation
Boxborough, MA
www.geocomp.com

Subtopics

Why monitor performance?

Whats new in measurement technologies?
Why automate?
Benefits to Contractors, Engineers and
Owners
Factors favoring monitoring
Wrap Up
Conclusions
There are new and significant roles for realtime performance monitoring of
construction.

Why monitor performance?

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Indicate impending failure.

Provide a warning.
Reveal unknowns.
Evaluate critical design assumptions.
Assess contractors means and methods.
Minimize damage to adjacent structures.
Control Construction.
Control Operations.
Devise remedial measures to fix problems.
Improve performance.
Advance state-of-knowledge.
Document performance for assessing damages.
Inform stakeholders.
Satisfy regulators.
Reduce litigation.
Show that everything is OK.

Why monitor performance?

TO SAVE MONEY

Save Lives
Minimize Damages
Avoid Delays
Save face protect reputation

Monitoring indicates unexpected

performance and surprises before the
consequences become large and
costly.

Monitoring provides a strong tool to

help manage operational risks.

Consequences can be serious

Singapore

Dulles
One killed, two trapped

Why monitor performance?

Because a significant number of projects

develop surprising behavior that leads to
increased costs and delays.

Many projects have major deficiencies in the site

investigation, testing, analysis or implementation
of recommendations.
Even with the best of site investigations, testing,
analysis and construction monitoring, we are still
frequently surprised by actual performance.
Diminished involvement of design engineer in the
construction.
Large tendency for the Contractor to ignore or
avoid engineers advice and perform the work in
their own ways, many times with inexperienced
staff.

Consequences can be expensive.

small slope failure because contractor dug too deep
Contractor filed claim for
$12,000,000 damages from delays
Contractor awarded $6,000,000 by
Review Board with no knowledge of
soil mechanics.

Why monitor performance?

TO LOWER RISK

RISK = Probability of Failure * Consequences

Good monitoring can reduce probability of
failure.
Good monitoring can reduce consequences by
giving a reliable warning. Consequences can be
very significant.
Loss of life
Damage to other property
Loss of facility
Costs to mitigate and repair
Delays
Damage to reputation

Dam cracking

1 in 20,000
Earth Dam with good, conservative practice, Whitman, 1984

Dam cracking

40-fold decrease achieved by

monitoring.
Performance monitoring can be a
very effective approach to
reducing risk.
1 in 500
Earth Dam with good, conservative practice, Whitman, 1984 poor monitoring

Why monitor performance?

Monitoring is important component of Risk Management.
To manage anything you must measure
key performance indicators.

What are the risks?

What performance parameters can we measure?

PHYSICAL

Deformation
Strain
Tilt
Pore water
pressure
Earth
pressure
Velocity
Acceleration
Flow Rate
Turbidity

CHEMICAL &
BIOLOGICAL

ENVIRONMENTAL

Time
Temperature
Humidity
Wind speed
and direction
Precipitation
Soil Moisture
Light Intensity
Sound
Intensity

pH
Conductivity
BOD and COD
Gas flow rate
Corrosion rate
Specific targets

VOCs
Metals
Bacterium
Molds

Measuring Performance

Great equipment available to measure

field performance reliably and quickly.

Crack gage

Tilt beam-Electro-level

Deformation - Distance change by laser

Measurement range - 0.2 to

200 m
Typical accuracy + 1.5mm
Measurement time 0.6 to 4
sec
Hundreds of targets per ATS
Remotely controllable
Use for automated monitoring
and alarming

Deformation - Distance change by GPS

Measurement range unlimited

Typical accuracy + 3 mm
Measurement time 0.1 to 10
sec
No moving parts.
Use for automated monitoring
and alarming

In place inclinometers

Reliably measure deflections to 1 mm.

Tilt
Tilt sensor

Tilt beam-Electro-level

Resolution to better than 0.1 mm per 10 m

Displacement - Crack Monitoring

Displacement transducer

Resolution to better than 1 m

Resistive
crack gages

Deformation - Borehole telltale extensometers

Head with electrical displacement

transducers for multipoint
telltale-type extensometers
Resolution to better than 1 m

Strain - Resistive strain gauges

4.0
Glued onto cement

0.015

0.5

Resolution to better than 1 strain

Welded onto steel

Strain - Vibrating wire extensometer

10 inches

Embed in
concrete pour.
% L/L gives
average strain in
concrete
Less sensitive to
electrical noise
and moisture.

Resolution to 1 strain
Units for embedment in concrete

Piezometer with Electrical Transducer

Pressure transducer
sealed in an isolated
location.
Gives immediate
response to change
in pore pressure.
Seal above
transducer is very
important.
Grout several in
same hole.

Vibrating wire piezometers

Load Cells to Measure Force

Hold down anchors
Tiebacks

Velocity and Acceleration

SEISMOGRAPH

Continuously records peak

velocities (or
accelerations) in a
specified interval.

Records complete time

history of vibrations that
exceed a trigger level.

Can automatically issue

alarm messages.

Powered by battery or
solar panel

Center of Site - Vibratory Driving of Piles

OSM Criteria *

Longitudinal

Transverse

Troublesome

Vertical

Peak Particle Velocity (in/sec)

10

Damage Threshold

Troublesome to People

0.1

Perceptible to People

0.01
1

10

Frequency (Hz)

100

Dynamic strain gages

Temperature sensors

0.25
Weldable
3 mm can

Thermisters in a string

Example of temperature sensitivity

displacement

temperature

Web-Based, Real-Time, Remote Monitoring

Internet

Web Enabled
Settings

I-20 at Vicksburg, MS

Old Scarp

US-80

I-20

Graben

History of eastern bank

1876 opening of Centennial cutoff causing Mississippi

channel to move towards east bank
1929 ground crack formed 900 ft upstream and 600 ft
downstream of US-80 bridge construction
1930 US-80 bridge completed
1933-1942 drop in river stage due to construction of
cutoffs upstream
1940-1943 east bank slope flattened
1973 I-20 bridge completed
2000-2004 measurements show movements at elevation
34 to 65 ft (Forest Hill formation) during low river stages.
2004- tests show Forest Hill soils have residual strength of
6 to 12 degrees.

History of movements concern for integrity

of I-20 bridge
Pier E-1
Pier E-2

Recent Horizontal Movements

Movements Occur when River Drops to Low Stage

Complex interaction of river, rainfall,

geometry and soil properties

New instrumentation

Enhanced real-time monitoring system in advance of

construction of remedial measures to warn of new
movements and evaluate effectiveness of remedial measures.

Five new inclinometers with 15 biaxial in-place MEMS inclinometers

in each.
Wireless data loggers for these and one existing inclinometer with
Sinco IPI in place.
3 vibrating wire piezometers outside each new inclinometer grouted
in at various elevations.
iSiteCentral Web-based monitoring system logging data several times
per day with alarms and immediate availability of the data plotted
with time.

Field Test of dewatering wells to lower pore water pressures

in slope and increase factor of safety in vicinity of bridge.

Rebuilding the World Trade Center New York City

Monitoring of Active Subway through the Site

Rebuilding the World Trade Center New York City

Monitoring for Existing Slurry Wall

Rebuilding the World Trade Center New York City

WTC Instant screen view

Advanced Numerical Analysis

PLAXIS Analysis to determine factor of

safety for global stability and for estimating
settlement of the mat foundation

Ellis Square Project Instruments

Automated Total Stations (2)

Over 110 targets within excavation and on
surrounding buildings
22 nested piezometers
Five automated inclinometers
Two flow meters
Four automated crack gages
Accessible in real time by iSiteCentral.com

Set up remotely at the Site

Monitoring the Buildings

..and Inside the Excavation

In-Place Inclinometers

Why monitor in real time?

Failure can occur rapidly with little visible

warning, even for where ground has been stable
for years.
Global instability shear slide
- weeks to few hours
Internal instability internal erosion piping
- years to few hours
Other soil/structural failure
years to minutes

Failure may be avoided using preventative

actions, if we have adequate warning.
Consequences can be reduced significantly if we
have a reliable warning.

Factors affecting monitoring frequency

Rate at which performance mechanism can

change

Consequences of poor performance

(deformations for excavation may be so small they cant be

reliably detected with manual monitoring; then within
hours rate accelerates to failure)
Are lives or major facilities at risk?

Environmental effects on facilities and

instrumentation

Temperature, humidity, precipitation, sun, wind

For monitoring to be effective, data retrieval,

evaluation and action must occur fast enough to
capture early warning signs and avoid
unacceptable performance.

Trends in monitoring for damage

control

Cost and frequency of claims are increasing

Regulatory requirements for monitoring are
increasing
Increasing need to monitor effects more
precisely
More people are recognizing the benefits of
good monitoring
Equipment is more reliable and less costly
Monitoring costs are decreasing
Methods to deliver timely data are improving.

New Benefits from Monitoring

Reduce risk

Predict and avoid failure by revealing unknowns/surprises.

Minimize damage to adjacent structures.
Document performance for assessing damages.
Reduce litigation.
Control construction to avoid delays.
Use data to preserve job safety and control means and methods

Demonstrate Quality, especially for design-build.

Devise remedial methods to fix problems.
Document performance for advancing claims.
Inform parties by answering questions and calming fears.
Improve construction processes.
Help deal with politically sensitive projects.
Reduce cost of future construction.

Factors encouraging more monitoring

Complex or unknown site conditions

Situations where behavior can change suddenly
Lack of prior experience
New construction materials/processes
Situations with strong pressure to lower costs
Tight restrictions and regulations
High consequences from failure, damages or
delays.
Concerns about litigation for damages.
Politically sensitive projects

Conclusions

Effective monitoring programs can save money

Effective monitoring programs need to be real-time.

Unit Costs of real-time monitoring are decreasing

Indicate need for protective measures before damage occurs

Reduce consequences of failure by providing a warning.
Reduce Risk to 1/10 to 1/100 that of an unmonitored facility

Better and cheaper sensors and data acquisition hardware

Lower cost of data collection, reduction and evaluation from
new electronics, computers and telecommunications iSite and
iSiteCentral

Contractors and civil engineers need to modernize their

approach to instrumentation and monitoring by using
current technology to better identify, monitor and
manage risk to life and property.

September 24-27, 2007

Boston, Massachusetts

th FMGM Boston, MA
September 24-27, 2007.