Monitoring of constructions and surrounding spaces
Structural monitoring is a specialised technical area that is increasingly required. This type of service is useful both in the construction phase and in the use phase of buildings. Through adequately defined monitoring plans, it is possible to infer about the behaviour of the structures over time. In the case of monitoring in the construction phase, it should start before the construction work and may have the objective of identifying damages caused by these works or observing the behaviour of the structures, functioning as an alert system. In the case of monitoring during the use phase, it is mainly to record the behaviour of the structure over time or the evolution of anomalies.
In both cases, the definition of an adequate monitoring plan is essential.
Examples of monitoring campaigns are: the measurement of displacements (absolute or relative), velocity or accelerations, slopes, cracks or expansion joints, lifting of constructive anomalies before and after construction works in neighbouring buildings/spaces, etc.