Whether it is for monitoring a construction-based activity or a natural phenomenon, settlement monitoring is at the core of GEO-Instruments’ monitoring services.
Operations such as ground compensation or excavation can cause unwanted settlement of nearby structures.
Settlement degrades the performance of foundations, leading to cracks, tilting, and possible failure of the supported structure. Monitoring can provide early detection of settlement, documents changes, and helps control corrective actions.
Monitoring settlement requires a solid understanding of ground mechanics to design the correct approach. GEO-Instruments has many solutions that can be selected according to project conditions.
It also requires a stable reference to determine absolute vertical displacements, usually established outside the zone where ground movement is predicted.
GEO-Instruments has comprehensive experience of hydrostatic levelling cells, manufactured in-house by our German division. These sensors can be installed on façades, ceilings or in basements to establish a two-dimensional network of points and detect, in a plan view, local settlements. We are then able to detect and identify any potential settlement that might harm the structures.
This type of monitoring can also be used where settlement is the aim of the site activity.
Settlement plates installed in-ground under an embankment load for instance provide a targeted map of the achieved ground settlement, in real-time. This monitoring solution is designed to provide our clients with a continuous view of the in-ground vertical movement, whilst detecting as soon as possible when the target value is reached. These early results can, in turn, save time and money if the next phase of construction can be started ahead of schedule.
These techniques, and other solutions such as AMTS and tilt monitoring, all combined on our web monitoring platform, allow confirmation of the settlement that’s encountered. This is vital in urban environments for instance, where ground settlement is a critical parameter which needs to be tracked early and continuously before thresholds are reached, and enable any corrective measures.