Bridge Bolt Monitoring
The Problem:
A new bridge construction consisted of a series of stanchions bolted to a road platform. The bolts were tightened to a defined torque but the bridge designers needed to monitor selected bolts to ensure there was no rotation and hence slacking of the bolts over the first 5 years of the bridge’s life.
The Solution:
By using the T24-ACMi-RA and attaching a potentiometer to the head of each bolt and fixing the outer body of the potentiometer to the structure, the bolt supports could be monitored for rotation. If the bolt rotated and worked itself loose the value of the potentiometer would change altering the output of the T24-ACMi-RA. The readings were taken every week to begin with and every month after the designers were happy that there was no appreciable movement. The readings were gathered using a T24-HR handheld display which allowed the user to walk up to the sensor he needed, wake the acquisition module and take the reading. As the readings were taken so infrequently the modules were housed in an IP65 T24-ACMi-RA with a supply power from two AA cells with ample battery life. As the T24-ACMi-RA could detect even the smallest of changes, this allowed the engineers to identify problem areas and address them before they became a hazard.
Products used in this application:
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