THEAM - Tunnel Health Monitoring for safety
Tunnel Health Monitoring aims to monitor the state-of-health of tunnel structures through the particular use of active seismics. The method targets on both the identification of gradually developing weaknesses in the rock body and the observation of these weakness zones before a full or partial collapse of the tunnel roof occurs. The proposed methodology will significantly reduce the costs of visual inspections and can be applied at much shorter time intervals, thereby improving tunnel safety in a fast and non-invasive way.
The basic idea behind THEAM consists in the artificial generation of fully predictable and repeatable seismic waves at the tunnel’s rock surface and to record the waveforms by seismic sensors attached to the tunnel’s walls and roof.
Scheme illustrating the operational principle
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