Structural Health Monitoring of the 2008 Olympic Venues in Beijing
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THE CHALLENGE
Performing structural health monitoring (SHM) of the new Beijing Olympic venues and other large structures in China to determine stability, reliability, and livability.
THE SOLUTION
Using NI LabVIEW software and CompactRIO hardware to design a highly accurate system with time-based GPS synchronization that monitors multiple structures at critical points.
A system based on CompactRIO, LabVIEW, and GPS technology monitors the structural health of the two largest Beijing Olympic venues.
Recently, the China Earthquake Administration (CEA) took the initiative to incorporate sophisticated SHM devices into six large structures in China, including the Beijing National Stadium and the National Aquatics Center – the two main 2008 Summer Olympic venues. The CEA selected CGM Engineering Inc. to develop a low-cost solution using contemporary computing, sensor, and communications technology to monitor the structural health characteristics of these and other structures in real time.
Our SHM system is based on NI software and hardware and monitors any type of activity that affects the structures ranging from natural geotechnical waves to vibrations caused by spectators at events. We deployed nine 64-channel and two 32-channel systems in a client-server architecture, encapsulated in a rugged enclosure, at various critical sites throughout China.
Each unit contains multiple CompactRIO systems; accelerometers for vibration measurements; and a GPS receiver for real-time, intrachassis synchronization within ±10 μs. We store the acquired data on embedded single-board computers, which multiple users can concurrently remotely access and analyze in real time using the LabVIEW shared variable engine, which is incorporated in the system software architecture.
Our researchers also can remotely connect to the systems for real-time monitoring anywhere in the world. Additionally, the systems can be configured using a single or multivariate architecture to notify users via e-mail when events occur. The CEA selected our system over other solutions because of its continuous real-time monitoring capabilities, time-based GPS synchronization, simple out-of-the-box setup, variety of I/O options that can be quickly and easily reconfigured to meet changing system requirements, and our ability to provide the highest channel count for the lowest cost.
In less than one year, we deployed an embedded monitoring system with unmatched competitive accuracy, price, and flexibility by using LabVIEW and CompactRIO as the computing platform. With this combination, we provided the CEA a system that is 10 times more accurate than initially thought possible at the lowest cost per system.
Chris McDonald
CGM Engineering Inc.
Learn more about performing structural health monitoring using the NI platform.
This article first appeared in the Q3 2008 issue of Instrumentation Newsletter.
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