Railway stress monitoring system

April 2001 Motion Control & Drives

Heavy construction can change soil support capabilities and may damage nearby buildings and bridges. To determine if harm is being done, construction engineers can monitor a structure's position, and when a position change is detected, construction can be halted, the problem analysed and the proper precautions taken.

Construction engineers working for the Taipei, Taiwan rapid transit system have built a 24 h surveillance system to monitor a bridge adjacent to one of their building sites. The system is made up of a series of sink and tilt sensors networked to a remote PC running data acquisition and control software. The ADAM-4000 series thermocouple input modules and software technology from Soltec Corporation is at the heart of their surveillance system.

One of Taipei's main intercity commuter train routes runs over this bridge, under which a tunnel is being dug into one of the riverbanks. The bridge's position is being monitored to ensure that it is not adversely affected by the construction work. Measurements are being taken using horizontal and vertical position sensors. The sensors have been placed along both sides of the bridge at 50m intervals. Each 50 m section equals one measurement node. In all, the engineers have built 22 nodes.

Each node consists of one ADAM-4021 analog output module (illustration), one ADAM-4011 analog input module and either one sink sensor with a water tube assembly or a tilt sensor. For weather and particulate protection each node's modules are housed in a fully sealed industrial grade enclosure. Each node is connected to a PC in the control room by means of an RS485 multidrop configuration network.

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