Monitoring of Hydraulic Structure: Problem and Approach

Abstract

In order to ensure safe shipping traffic with the overaged waterway infrastructure, structure health monitoring for massive hydraulic structures is becoming increasingly important. The necessity of a monitoring system usually results from one of two reasons: Either the calculated bearing capacity can be verified, but there is damage (e.g. cracks) that endangers the bearing capacity, or the structure has shown normal behavior since construction but cannot be verified by calculation. As a result of the significantly lower hazard potential of the waterway infrastructure compared to dams, automatic measuring systems are usually not installed but individually conceived if necessary. In order to optimize this process, a modular system is being developed. The paper focuses on the requirements and characteristics of massive hydraulic structures with regard to the monitoring system. These are in particular the large dimensions and individuality of the structures, the comparatively small deformations without significant vibration behavior, the long measurement periods, as well as the rough environmental conditions (humidity, temperature variations, direct solar radiation etc.). As an example, the long-term behavior of the measurements of a monitoring system in a lock is analyzed and a test rig is conceived for the investigation of the suitability and long-term stability of different inclinometer.