Instrumentation and monitoring
Where to use
Monitoring systems are needed whenever the long-term stability of a space or structure is of concern. This is often done in rock caverns to monitor the progress of various rock mechanical parameters such as movements of walls and roof or change of rock stress in long term. But this could as well be about monitoring the heat or water pressure inside the space or the movement of soils and fluids on top.
Advantages
Using monitoring systems is the best way to locate and analyze long- term trends of measurements. Almost all of the measurements can be automated, and the results from the measurements can be sent to internet services for further analysis. User can be automatically warned when parameters reach their limits.
Equipment
We supply a wide range of monitoring equipment and their installation services. We also provide the full monitoring systems including dataloggers, data transfer and data visualization.
Some (but not all) of the equipment that we install are
Displacement measurements
such as
- Extensometers
- High -accuracy (tenths or hundredths of millimeters) measurements systems installed inside rock to measure movement of mass in the axial direction of the device.
- Convergence measurements
- Measures the changes of distances between fixed points, often used to measure the deformation of rock caverns or excavations. A large variety of measurement methods available.
- Inclinometers
- A system based on accelerometers, measures the change of angle of its axis. Several different implementations, to be used both on surface and inside borehole.
Stress, strain and load measurements
such as
- Strain bolts
- A system of strain gauges installed directly to the actual reinforcement bolts, to measure changes in their load and notice any signs of yielding.
- Borehole stress cells
- A system installed inside borehole to measure changes in the stress distribution of the surrounding rock.
Related measurements
such as
- Temperature
- Water pressure
- Water level, conductivity etc.
Used repeatedly, also many of our ground- or drillhole measurement tools can be used for long- term monitoring.