Structural Health Monitoring for SHM

Ping–An Finance Center (PAFC), with a total height of 600 m, is the fourth tallest building in the world. An integrated structural health monitoring (SHM) system with total number of 553 sensors, which was designed based on the modular design methodology, is being installed in PAFC to monitor its structural performance and external excitations during both construction and service stages. This paper first gives a brief introduction of the architecture of the SHM system, followed by detailed descriptions on its 7 subsystems, including the components, functions, and interrelationship corresponding to each subsystem. The modular design of the SHM system ensures highly effective operation of the comprehensive monitoring system, and such an extensible system allows the subsystems to be deployed and augmented easily to meet the evolving monitoring needs. The second part of this paper introduces the research activities and selected results from the SHM system equipped in PAFC, including monitoring of vertical deformations of various structural components, verification of effectiveness of active tuned mass damper systems, and verification of numerous damage identification methods. Finally, representative monitoring results from the SHM system in PAFC during a typhoon are presented and discussed. This paper aims to provide useful information for the SHM, construction, and design of super–tall buildings.

Structural health monitoring (SHM) systems have been extensively employed in civil structures, particularly in connection with bridges, which provide inherent information of structures under operation by means of field measurements to identify and estimate the change of main property index caused by structural damages or material deterioration.[1] For example, various sensors were deployed on the 522 m Foyle Bridge to monitor the girders’ vibration, deflection, and strain responses.[2] An integrated monitoring system was incorporated on the 12.9 km Confederation Bridge, aiming at monitoring the structural dynamic responses and deformations.[3] Besides, a monitoring system that consists of approximate 500 accelerometers, a mass of strain gauges, and a set of global position system (GPS) was installed on the Tsingma Bridge in Hong Kong to monitor its serviceability and safety during its operation period.[4] On the other hand, SHM systems have also increasingly been adopted in high–rise structures to ensure their safety and serviceability. Brownjohn et al.[5,6] carried out a long–term monitoring study with concentration on the change of dynamic responses and structural dynamic properties of a 280 m high and 65 story office tower. Li et al.[7–9] conducted full–scale measurements on a number of super–tall buildings to identify their wind–induced response characteristics under strong wind conditions. An integrated real–time SHM and structural identification system were implemented on Burj Khalifa to monitor and assess the structural performance of the world’s highest building.[10] It is noteworthy that the previous monitoring studies associated with high–rise buildings were predominantly carried out during their service stages, with emphasis placed on structural dynamic responses under wind actions or earthquake excitations. There have been few investigations that employed SHM systems during both construction and service stages to provide comprehensive assessment on the performance of high–rise structures. For instance, a SHM system consisting of over 600 sensors was installed in a TV Transmission Tower (Canton Tower) to provide real–time monitoring for both in–construction and in–service stages.[11] Recently, a structural performance monitoring system that consists of more than 400 sensors was implemented for the monitoring of Shanghai Tower during its construction and service stages.[12]

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AUTHORS: QIUSHENG LI, DEPARTMENT OF ARCHITECTURE AND CIVIL ENGINEERING, CITY UNIVERSITY OF HONG KONG, KOWLOON TONG, HONG KONG, ARCHITECTURE AND CIVIL ENGINEERING RESEARCH CENTRE, SHENZHEN RESEARCH INSTITUTE, CITY UNIVERSITY OF HONG KONG, SHENZHEN, CHINA, YINGHOU HE, ARCHITECTURE AND CIVIL ENGINEERING RESEARCH CENTRE, SHENZHEN RESEARCH INSTITUTE, CITY UNIVERSITY OF HONG KONG, SHENZHEN, CHINA, SCHOOL OF CIVIL ENGINEERING AND MECHANICS, HUAZHONG UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY, WUHAN, CHINA, KANG ZHOU, ARCHITECTURE AND CIVIL ENGINEERING RESEARCH CENTRE, SHENZHEN RESEARCH INSTITUTE, CITY UNIVERSITY OF HONG KONG, SHENZHEN, CHINA, XULIANG HAN, ARCHITECTURE AND CIVIL ENGINEERING RESEARCH CENTRE, SHENZHEN RESEARCH INSTITUTE, CITY UNIVERSITY OF HONG KONG, SHENZHEN, CHINA, YUNCHENG HE, DEPARTMENT OF ARCHITECTURE AND CIVIL ENGINEERING, CITY UNIVERSITY OF HONG KONG, KOWLOON TONG, HONG KONG, ZHENRU SHU, DEPARTMENT OF ARCHITECTURE AND CIVIL ENGINEERING, CITY UNIVERSITY OF HONG KONG, KOWLOON TONG, HONG KONG.