Visual-DSC: Monitoring Structural Displacements and Strains

J. VALENÇA

Research Assistant

ICIST, Pol. Inst. of Coimbra Coimbra, Portugal jonatas@dec.uc.pt

J. Valença, is research assistant at the Polytechnic Institute of Coimbra. Received his M.Sc. degree in Civil Engineering in 2006 from the Univ. of Coimbra where he currently is a

PhD student. His main research interests include NDT and image processing techniques.

E. JÚLIO

Full Professor

ICIST, DECivil IST-UTL,

Lisbon, Portugal

ejulio@civil.ist.utl.pt

E. Júlio is a full professor at the Instituto Superior Técnico of the Technical University of Lisbon. His research interests are in the field of Structural Concrete. He is member of IABSE WC 3, fib Commission 5 and ACI 364 Committee.

Most laboratorial tests performed with civil engineering structures rely on traditional methods for monitoring physical quantities, namely: i) LVDTs for displacements; and ii) strain gages for strains. Nevertheless, important limitations can be identified in these methods: i) positioning restrictions, due to limited number of available measuring devices and/or lack of space; ii) high costs, mainly due to the devices and the equipment required for data acquisition; and iii) time-consuming data analysis. Herein, a new technique is proposed using photogrammetry and post-processing tools to overcome these drawbacks.