Measurand and partners GKM Consultants are part of a three-year rail deformation project for the National Research Council (NRC). Researchers required a way to provide long-term static condition monitoring, alongside dynamic condition monitoring triggered when trains passed over the project area to study the effect of frost heave on deformation.
GKM Consultants won the bid to install a suite of monitoring instrumentation including SAAX-model ShapeArrays, multipoint borehole extensometers, piezometers, and strain gauges.
In March 2018, employees of Measurand and GKM Consultants travelled to Smith Falls, Ontario to perform an overnight installation of the suite of instrumentation to monitor a section of rail line selected for its expected large vertical deformation under load.
GKM Consultants configured a solar-powered data logger to automate data collection, while a cellular modem transferred the data remotely. They had to accurately estimate the data transfer times and power requirements of the high-frequency measurements.
According to GKM Consultants, the project is in progress and the instrumentation is successfully logging data.
Read more at GKM Consultants.