Sensing and Monitoring in Tunnels Testing and Monitoring Methods For The Assessment of Tunnels
Sensing and Monitoring in Tunnels Testing and Monitoring Methods For The Assessment of Tunnels
DOI: 10.1002/suco.201900444
TECHNICAL PAPER
Correspondence
Alfred Strauss, Institute of Structural Abstract
Engineering, Department of Civil The paper presents a review of testing methods and a classification of strategies
Engineering and Natural Hazards,
and tools in terms of technologies and techniques applied to the monitoring of
University of Natural Resources and Life
Sciences, 1190 Vienna, Austria. tunnels. In particular, the topic is contextualized through a brief introduction
Email: [email protected] in Chapter 1, followed by defect taxonomy and degradation mechanisms in
Chapters 2 and 3, respectively. Chapters 4 and 5 are related to monitoring strat-
egies and technologies. The former consists of purpose-based categorization of
monitoring policies, while the latter consists of classification of monitoring
methods including nondestructive and semidestructive techniques as well as of
classification of various types of sensors also based on the physical or chemical
quantity measured. General rules of implementation and operation of tunnel
monitoring systems are presented taking into account international expert
knowledge as well as contemporary practical experience in Austria. Considered
issues are related to the fib Model Code 2020 (MC2020) focused on evaluation
of structural performance assisted by monitoring and testing. Chapter 6 pre-
sents challenges related to the monitoring implementation and operation.
Chapter 7 discusses about monitoring characteristics in new tunnel, including
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© 2020 The Authors. Structural Concrete published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of International Federation for Structural Concrete
KEYWORDS
monitoring strategies, monitoring technologies, taxonomy of tunnel monitoring
excessive settlements or collapses of assets in vicinity and tunnels may include: vertical access and escalator shafts,
on the surface, and significant delays in delivery. During ventilation tunnels, or cross passages. Tunnel structures
operation, it is often considered that the tunnel and gro- are also used for access and withdrawal of material in
und interaction is a relatively stable and thus reliable mines and in the oil and gas industry, thus playing an
load bearing system. However, consequences of failure important role, depending on the duration of life cycle
are still of great significance as noted above. Moreover, management project. Additionally, in some cases, com-
any difficulties of maintenance activities in the tunnel plex combined systems are devised, as for example, com-
need to be carried out in a live condition or with minimal bined railway and highway tunnels, or transportation
interruption of the tunnel with particularly tight sched- and flood relief tunnels.
ule, and typically with high-risk activities and with work It can be stated that in most types of tunnel struc-
in confined spaces. As a consequence, advanced life cycle tures, the load development in the long term is essentially
FIGURE 1 Monitoring in
new and existing tunnels
STRAUSS ET AL. 1359
correlation with the environmental and loading condi- A further type of failure often observed in tunnels is
tions. The various types of linings are correlated to various groundwater ingress in form of leakage. This is associ-
possible tunnel shapes. For example, segmentally lined ated, from a structural viewpoint, with durability of the
tunnels are of circular shapes, while brick and sprayed lining and of the reinforcement. This can also be further
lined tunnels mostly implement arch shapes. The shape in associated with the diffusion of aggressive substances
relation to the stress field around the tunnel may addition- from the surrounding substrate as it is discussed in typi-
ally influence the susceptibility of the tunnel to degrada- cal exposure classes of concrete structures.
tion processes (e.g., concrete lining under mild
compression can prove to remain unaffected of material
degradation phenomena such as cracking or creep). 2 | DEFECT CLASSIFICATION
The load bearing system type is also strongly associ-
TABLE 1 Classification of defects of tunnels with concrete lining—in analogy with Bien (2019)
developed and level-diversified, in accordance with independent inspectors performing similar tasks. It also
multi-level taxonomy. The main scope in classifying invests great importance in the formulation of tunnel
defects would be to reach comparable results among quality specifications and in the examination of the
STRAUSS ET AL. 1361
structure performance indicators during the complete The load-dependent category, also called technical
process of condition monitoring. monitoring, is based on the observation of a structure
response to operation loads and environment by means
of installed technical measuring equipment. 29–39 It is
3 | DEGRADATION MECHANISMS characterized by the installation of a technical monitor-
ing system finalized to the data acquisition and
Tunnel structures are affected by multiple degradation processing, that continuously and autonomously provides
mechanisms that can possibly lead to first defect genera- real-time information about a structure or its component.
tion, then failures and finally even collapses (Bien 2019). The result of this analysis is conveying information
When two or more mechanisms act simultaneously, deg- regarding the exact estimation of tunnel conditions
radation processes at a final stage either on the tunnel inherent to aspects that can generally not be fully
TABLE 2 Degradation mechanisms of tunnels with concrete lining and associated classes of defects based on the work of Bien (2019)
Class of defects
Loss of
Degradation mechanisms Deformation Destruction material Discontinuity Contamination Displacement
Physical Accumulation of inorganic □ □ ■ ■
dirtiness
Cyclic freeze-throw action ■ ■ □ □
Erosion □ ■
Crystallization ■ □ □
Extreme temperatures
of specific external influences acting on a structure or As valid for bridges in Bien (2019), it is important to
its component, including loads and environmental individually design each monitoring system, taking into
actions. account the specific problematics of the case. In most of
• Reaction monitoring—allowing measurement of the the practical applications, it can be said that each specific
state of displacement, stress/strain level and their distri- implementation results from a mixture of the categories
bution in a structure as well as identification of vibra- listed in Table 3.
tion parameters: frequency, velocity, amplification, However, advanced monitoring systems are not tech-
damping caused by traffic loads and other influences. nically needed for all analyzed tunnel structures, besides
• Performance monitoring—allowing to evaluate not being also economically feasible. In fact, its applica-
whether a structure or its component meets the perfor- tion is typically limited to the following situations
mance requirements under specific or any actions, (Bien, 2019):
defined by the performance indicators.
• Health monitoring—allowing the real-time assessment • tunnels with innovative structural and/or material
and prediction of health condition of a structure or its solutions,
component by means of their safety and functional • very important tunnel structures that are strategic
characteristics. components of transportation system,
STRAUSS ET AL. 1363
Type of
monitoring
system Monitoring effects
Action Characteristics of all loads acting on a
monitoring tunnel structure
Geometry and speed of vehicles
Environmental influences (temperature,
wind, humidity, earthquakes, etc.)
Monitoring of accidents on the structure
TABLE 4 Classification of SDT methods and techniques based TABLE 5 Monitoring of loads and environmental impacts
on the work of Bien (2019) based on the work of Bien (2019)
shorter distances (up to ca. 150 m), continuous wave control and invoicing function, this information can be of
(CW) lasers with modulated amplitude are used. great assistance for maintenance, repair works and cost
Thereby, distance is measured through the phase dis- estimation that is, Reference 57.
placement of the emitted and received laser beam. Using By delivering 3D full-surface information, detection,
CW-lasers, the position of up to 1,000,000 points/s can be visualization and analysis of cracks and other defects in
detected with a precision of up to 1 mm. 52,53 concrete and masonry tunnels as indications of structure
The design of modern scanner equipment shows degradation at an early stage is possible (see also 55).
small dimensions and low weight, thus the system is Crack development can be recorded via multiple scans.
highly portable and applicable in narrow spaces. Most of The orientation information and crack opening widths as
the devices allow the operation in wet environment at a well as possible water ingress can easily be derived, that
wide temperature-range commonly between −20 and is, Wang et al.58 Depending on the perspective and crack
for data analysis and interpretation as well as the possi- between consecutive instrument stations is at the order
bility for online monitoring and control. 61 of ~100 m, an interlinked observation scheme of the cross
sections is adopted (see Figure 10). Thus, reference points
are commonly used for the coordinate's determination of
7.4 | Geodetic measuring methods successive instrument stations.
Two reference points are sufficient for solving unam-
7.4.1 | Absolute measurement systems biguously the coordinates of the total station x^TS within a
single free-stationing. However, it is mandatory to choose
Over the recent past, it has become good practice to per- a higher number of such points in order to check for the
form 3D displacement monitoring using total stations. stability of the reference points and to meet the imposed
For this conventional monitoring approach individual accuracy (see Equation (3)) as well as reliability condi-
S d^d^ = S ^x^xj + S ^x ^xj − 1 ð4Þ that the geometry of the cross section represented by the
measured points significantly changed between the
epochs. In a subsequent localization phase, the displaced
Additionally, the covariance matrix of the displace- points are identified by assessing the contribution of each
ment vectors, Sd^d^ , is estimated from the covariance matri- point to the mean gap between the geometries deter-
ces of the coordinate vectors in the single epochs: mined in the two epochs (Niemeier,64 ) (p. 592 for further
details on the method of mean gap components).
S d^d^ = S ^x^xj + S ^x ^xj − 1 ð5Þ Some typical results of this monitoring activity are:
This enables to perform a statistical test in order to • sum vectors of the deformations (see Figure 11),
check the global statistical congruency between the • influence area diagrams,
T
T = d^ Sd−^d^1 d^ ð6Þ
8 | CONCLUSION
and is central F-distributed under the null hypothesis H0
that no deformations occurred between the two epochs: The paper presents a review of testing methods and a clas-
sification of strategies and tools in terms of technologies
H 0 : Efdg = 0 ð7Þ and techniques applied to the monitoring of tunnels. In
particular, the topic is contextualized through a brief intro-
If the test value exceeds the (1-α)-quantile of the duction in Chapter 1, followed by defect taxonomy and
corresponding F-distribution the null hypothesis can be degradation mechanisms in Chapters 2 and 3, respectively.
rejected at the significance level of (1-α), thus indicating Chapters 4 and 5 are related to monitoring strategies and
technologies. Nondestructive and semi-destructive tech- combination with displacement transducers), for an exten-
niques are also used as the basis for classification of moni- sive monitoring, in case of an evaluation length of >100.
toring methods. Chapter 6 presents a few concepts related
to the implementation and operation of tunnel monitoring
ORCID
according to both international expert knowledge and
Alfred Strauss https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1674-7083
practical experience in Austria. Chapter 7 discusses basic
concepts related to data-acquisition transmission, engi-
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Hans Neuner,
07.010.
Research Division Engineering
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHIES
Klaus Voit, Institute of Applied
Alfred Strauss, Geology, Department of Civil Engi-
Institute of Structural Engineering, neering and Natural Hazards,
Department of Civil Engineering University of Natural Resources
and Natural Hazards, and Life Sciences,
University of Natural Resources Vienna, Austria.
and Life Sciences, Email: [email protected]
Vienna, Austria.
Email: [email protected]
1376 STRAUSS ET AL.