Dynamic Monitoring of Tall Buildings

Abstract

There has been an increasing demand on tall and high-rise buildings. In response, structural engineers have become more interested in improving the design of these newly constructed buildings as well as extending the life of the existing and aging ones. Field dynamic monitoring is the best method that engineers can rely on to measure the current performance of tall buildings in order to make critical decisions regarding the improvement of their designs or regarding the planning of their retrofitting and maintenance. Radar interferometry is a novel remote monitoring technique that has appeared to be exceptionally suitable for monitoring of tall buildings. However, the performance and capabilities of this system relative to other conventional sensors in not fully understood. This paper reviews the radar system and other commonly used sensors with a focus on their current status and application. A model for evaluating the relative performance of the different sensors for tall buildings is constructed and it demonstrates that the radar has unmatched capabilities for monitoring of high-rise buildings, The comparative case study on the Soul Tower, which is the first of its kind on such high-rise building, further confirms this conclusion.. Consequently, engineers are advised to always consider employing the interferometric radar for dynamic monitoring of tall buildings.