Monitoring and Analysis of Vertical and Horizontal Deformations of a Large Structure Using Conventional Geodetic Techniques

Abstract

For the reason that there are several factors that affect large engineering structures, monitoring them to determine their deformations for safety purpose cannot be underestimated. Therefore, this study presents monitoring and analysis of vertical and horizontal deformations of a large structure, Palm House Building, Benin City, to determine its structural integrity. Four reference stations, two sets of monitoring points and two conventional geodetic techniques, total station and digital level were used. The positions and heights of the reference stations were respectively determined using CHC900 dual frequency GNSS receivers and digital level with respect to nearby control station and benchmark. The two sets of monitoring points were observed at three epochs at interval of six months using total station and digital level with respect to the reference stations. The observations were adjusted with least squares technique to determine the reliability as well as the accuracy of the adjusted observations and those of the adjusted parameters. The adjusted parameters were used to compute the displacement magnitudes. The computed displacement magnitudes were compared with their respective 95% confidence ellipses/intervals to determine if significant movement has taken place between observation epochs. The study results show that the structure was stable during the period of monitoring.

Keywords: Monitoring, Analysis, Deformation, Large Structure, Palm House Building, Conventional Geodetic Techniques