Long-term monitoring of high-rise buildings connected by link bridges

Abstract

Structural health monitoring has potential to become a central tool to be used in the field of civil engineering. A proper monitoring strategy allows one to assess long-term structural behavior, schedule maintenance, and ensure occupant safety. Although monitoring of civil structures is a rapidly growing field, very little literature exists regarding the long-term monitoring of complex high-rise structures and the associated monitoring strategies. The Pinnacle@Duxton is a public residential housing development in Singapore. It is a complex structure consisting of seven 50-story high-rise buildings connected with link bridges at floors 26 and 50. Long-gauge fiberoptic strain sensors are installed in all seven buildings and 4 of the 12 bridges. Building sensors were embedded in the first-floor concrete columns during construction, and sensing data were available from the onset of construction into the service life of the structure. Bridge sensors were surface mounted immediately after the bridge construction, and provide data during their service life. Using the monitoring results, it was possible to evaluate the behavior of the structures in long term on a local and global level. Locally, strain in all monitored members was evaluated and compared with material limit states. In addition, strain components were estimated where appropriate. Globally, the structural behavior of the buildings was evaluated using statistical analysis of results, while global behavior of link bridges is evaluated using simplified bending analysis. The monitoring system, results, and data analysis for the Pinnacle@Duxton complex are presented in this paper.