Research into the impact of systemic errors on the index values of strains

Abstract

The article analyses the impact of systemic errors in coordinates on the strain tensors and on internal deformation measures (dilatation and elongation) calculated applying the finite element method to the position changes of stations inferred from GPS measurements. The paper presents the formulas obtained for calculating the impact of errors under different linear models for accumulating systemic errors. Theoretical decisions have been verified conducting computational experiments. The computational experiment carried out on the basis of GPS measurements, using data of six stations established around the Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant, demonstrates that constant errors in coordinates do not affect the tensors and indexes of strains. Any systemic errors in coordinates linearly dependent on the position of geodetic control points have an impact on the values of tensor elements and the indexes of strains; however, variations in deformations across the examined territory remain similar to those without systemic errors.