Preserving History: Continuous Monitoring of a Historic Warship
In 2008, the SOCOTEC Monitoring team was commissioned by the BRE (Building Research Establishment) to undertake the task of monitoring the oldest commissioned warship.
Summary of the works
Client –Royal Navy / Building Research Establishment
Duration 2008 – Current
Monitoring System – Electro level sensors, Draw wire sensors, temperature sensors, Piezometers – Argus Monitoring Software.
Case Study
Project Details
Manual surveys had been undertaken on board for many years at sporadic intervals, causing issues to the flow of visitors and VIP visitors. Therefore, the decision was made to install a movement monitoring system relinquishing the need to manual survey the ship at such regular intervals. The 24/7 monitoring also gave a more complete picture of the movement of the ship throughout the day as temperature varies across its structure and how the structure moves through the seasons of the year.
The key parts of the ship were identified and the type of measurement required specified. ITM Monitoring proposed a solution using a combination of drawwires and electorlevels throughout the ship from the dock bottom to the quarter deck. This enabled the whole profile of the ship through three key cross sections to be monitored.
Manual surveys had been undertaken on board for many years at sporadic intervals, causing issues to the flow of visitors and VIP visitors. Therefore, the decision was made to install a movement monitoring system relinquishing the need to manual survey the ship at such regular intervals. The 24/7 monitoring also gave a more complete picture of the movement of the ship throughout the day as temperature varies across its structure and how the structure moves through the seasons of the year.
The key parts of the ship were identified and the type of measurement required specified. ITM Monitoring proposed a solution using a combination of drawwires and electorlevels throughout the ship from the dock bottom to the quarter deck. This enabled the whole profile of the ship through three key cross sections to be monitored.
Piezometers were also installed around the grade 1 listed dock to monitor the pore water pressure around the dock and the effects of the tide. The system is a wired system due to the number of sensors and the dense structure of the ship, the sensors are connected through multiplexers to 5 dataloggers. The dataloggers communicate wirelessly to an ADSL gateway and into ARGUS.
To ensure minimum visual impact, all installed sensors were painted in a colour to match the wood work of the ship and new electrolevel beams were designed enabling them to be bent to fit with the structure all adding to the visual appeal of the system.
