Monday, November 17, 2014

Geotechnical Instrumentation and Monitoring - Importance and Overview

Geotechnical instrumentation is very important in the construction field and helps the engineers in various ways at different stages of the projects. Right from the site investigation till project completion, geotechnical monitoring and instrumentation plays a very vital role. Let's discuss the usage of Geotechnical instruments during different stages of the construction of a project.

Site Investigation - The investigation of site includes checking the conditions of the site, stability of slope, soil permeability and the pore-water pressure.

Verifying the Design - It is crucial to verify the design assumptions and to check if these designs are as per the said design. It is also important to analyze if it is required to update or modify the design at the later stages.

Construction Monitoring - Geotechnical instrumentation and monitoring is very important in the construction phase. It speeds up the entire process by removing the probabilities like failure.

Quality Control - It is important to control the quality during the construction stage and also to ensure that the construction is being done as per the specifications given.

Geotechnical Monitoring
Security and Safety - The projects that have geotechnical monitoring have an edge over the other projects without such monitoring. The reason being, such measures helps in knowing well in advance about any forthcoming failures. This further helps in taking appropriate measures to avoid such failures.

Performance - There are various geotechnical instruments that can be either rented or purchased as per the requirements. All these instruments help in improving the overall performances of the projects. These instruments include beam sensors, tilt sensors etc and they assist in activities such as monitoring deformation, slope movements, dam performance, leakage and many more.