Structural Health Monitoring

Structures Move Before They Fail

Every structure moves. Buildings settle, bridges flex, tunnels converge, and the ground shifts as nearby construction proceeds. Most of this movement is normal. The difficulty is knowing when movement crosses from normal into a sign of distress and catching that change early enough to act. By the time cracks or deflections are visible, the underlying movement has often been developing for a long time.

Structural health monitoring measures this movement continuously and objectively. Sensors track tilt, crack width, strain, settlement, vibration, and load, and the system sends automatic alerts when readings cross defined thresholds. In Singapore, this monitoring is also a regulatory requirement for many projects. The BCA requires instrumentation and monitoring for a range of building and geotechnical works, and the LTA imposes strict monitoring requirements for any work near the rail network. Wetec designs and installs structural and geotechnical monitoring systems that meet these requirements and bring every sensor into a single automated platform.

A Wetec structural health monitoring system combines the sensors appropriate to each structure and risk:

• Tilt and rotation: tiltmeters and inclinometers measuring the lean or rotation of walls, columns, retaining structures, and buildings.

• Movement and displacement: automated total stations and displacement sensors tracking the position of many points across a structure or site in three dimensions.

• Crack and joint movement: crackmeters and jointmeters measuring changes in the width of cracks and joints over time.

• Strain and load: strain gauges and load cells measuring the forces in structural members, struts, anchors, and supports.

• Settlement: liquid level and other settlement systems measuring the vertical movement of foundations, floors, and ground.

• Vibration: sensors measuring the vibration and dynamic response caused by construction, traffic, trains, or other activity, protecting sensitive structures from damage.

• Groundwater and ground movement: piezometers and related sensors measuring pore water pressure and ground behaviour, where structural and geotechnical risks are linked.