Extensometers for Tunneling
A common practice among civil engineers is the use of extensometers for tunneling monitoring.
To maintain the safety and integrity of tunnels, it is necessary to regularly measure the displacement of rock, soil, and concrete within and nearby these excavations. This can present a major challenge – manually monitoring long stretches of tunneling is very time-consuming and potentially inaccurate.
A common practice among civil engineers is the use of extensometers for tunneling monitoring. In most cases, this means installing a series of borehole extensometers (e.g. the MDT SMART MPBX) into the walls and roofs of tunnels.
Borehole extensometers contain one or more reference anchors positioned at specified intervals that are connected to a reference head, located at the collar of the hole. These instruments are commonly used to measure the displacement of rock, soil or concrete within tunnels.
In some cases, the extensometer uses rods to measure displacement, with information being transmitted to the readout head by mechanical means.
If the extensometer has an electronic readout head, information gathering is simple, as all extensometers can be connected to a network that moves data automatically to a central point.
The ideal solution for tunnel monitoring is to install the Loadsensing LS-G6 system, connected to an array of SMART MPBXs (multi-point borehole extensometers).
The LS-G6 system can monitor all extensometers and other compatible instruments (wirelessly and in real time), provide regular data readouts (at user-defined time intervals), and raise the alarm if a predetermined safety threshold is breached.
