Geotechnical instrumentation refers to different instruments and technologies used to monitor performance of earth, rock, and structures built on it. Instrumentation to verify actual performance compared to design predictions is crucial for successful completion of many geotechnical projects. This is especially true for complex construction such as tunnels, walls, slopes, and braced excavations. While simple projects require minimal instrumentation, more demanding projects generally necessitate a more elaborate setup with extensive performance monitoring.
Geotechnical instrumentation provides valuable data throughout all stages of a project. Below are several reasons it is used:
- Design Verification: Geotechnical instrumentation verifies design assumptions and checks whether performance aligns with predictions. Early data may suggest adjustments to the design in later phases.
- Construction Control and Safety: Instruments monitor the effects of construction to ensure progress is safe, helping engineers determine the appropriate pace of work to avoid failure. Instruments provide early warnings of potential failures, allowing time for evacuation and corrective measures. Safety monitoring requires rapid data retrieval and decision-making.
- Performance: Instruments monitor a structure’s ongoing performance. For example, tracking parameters like leakage, pore-water pressure, and deformation can help evaluate the performance of structures such as dams and stabilized slopes.
- Legal Protection: Geotechnical instrumentation can provide evidence to support designers and contractors in case adjacent property owners claim construction-induced damage.
Installations provided by BHATE include but not limited to the following:
Piezometers: Measure pore water pressure or water levels and includes basic and vibrating wire installation. They can be used in large soil fill sites, deeper excavations, and dam construction.
Strain Gauges and Extensometers: Assess the behavior of materials under load. They can be used to evaluate structural loads and load transfer along deep foundations such as piles.
Settlement Sensors and Plates: Used to verify that soil consolidation is proceeding as predicted, to verify the performance of engineered foundations and determine the timing for corrective measures.
Inclinometers: Geotechnical instrumentation to measure the lateral displacement caused by excavations, retaining walls, or natural and manmade slopes.
Total Station: Total stations are commonly used in positional monitoring, measurement of excavation support systems and adjacent structures, settlement of fills, and movement measurements of critical infrastructure. This system can be automated using robotics.
Learn more about our
Instrumentation Services
Josh Bhate
LEED AP, QCxP, CxA, CxA+BE
Chief Operations Officer
jbhate@bdandps.com