Crack growth monitoring made easy

Robust IP68 sensors enable easy sensorization and monitoring of civil structures

Danish holiday home owner is the victim of a badly constructed wall surrounding his house. The house is placed on a hilltop, meaning that the wall is quite important for the stability of the house and, in particular, the terrace surrounding the house.

The consequences of the badly constructed wall are many:

-The bricks are separating

-The whole wall is moving outwards and downwards

-Big cracks are starting to appear

-The terrace is becoming more and more unstable

-The whole foundation of the house is potentially in danger of moving.

For complaint, safety and insurance issues, the owner asked ElastiSense to mount position sensors on the construction to learn how much the wall is still moving and at what speed. We mounted two DS20 sensors on the wall, one in a vertical direction and one in a horizontal. They where connected to a control box and a PC, allowing for both the customer and ElastiSense to read out the data and analyse.

After a period of time, the data will be used to prove to the previous contractor and the insurance company that the wall is in fact moving. Furthermore the data will be used to advice the new contractor on the repair of the construction.

This is a great example of how you can use sensors for structural monitoring. In this case, the sensors need to be able to withstand the elements, being exposed to Danish weather when it is best and worst. That means lots of rain, sun, wind, changing temperatures and even hail. DS-Series sensors are built for just that an are perfect for outdoor structural monitoring.