Health Monitoring of High-rise Building with Fiber Optic Sensor (SOFO)

Structural health monitoring is becoming more and more important in the domain of civil engineering as a proper mean to increase and maintain the safety, especially in the land of earthquakes like Japan. In many civil structures, the deformations are the most relevant parameter to be monitored. In this context, a monitoring technology based on the use of long-gage fiber optic deformation sensor, SOFO is being applied to a 33-floors tall building in Tokyo. Sensors were installed on the 2 nd floor’s steel columns of the building on May 2005 in the early stage of the construction. The installed SOFO sensors were dynamic compatible ones which enable both static and dynamic measurements. The monitoring is to be performed during the whole lifespan of the building. During the construction, static deformations of the columns had been measured on a regular basis using a reading unit for static measurement and dynamic deformation measurements were occasionally conducted using a reading unit for dynamic measurement. The building was completed on August 2006. After the completion, static and dynamic deformation measurements have been continuing. This paper describes a health monitoring technology, SOFO system which is applicable to high-rise buildings and monitoring results of a 33-floors tall building in Tokyo from May 2005 to October 2010.