Deformation monitoring is of importance to ensure the operation status of concrete-face rockfill dams (CFRD). This paper reported a novel fiber optic gyroscope (FOG) monitoring system for continuously monitoring face slab deformation of CFRD, which consisted of a permanent monitoring pipeline and a sensing vehicle. The monitoring pipeline was made of steel pipes and polyvinyl chloride polymer connectors, which was embedded in a slot of the crushing-type sidewall beneath the concrete face slab of CFRD, forming a permanent monitoring channel. The sensing vehicle was equipped with a high-precision FOG sensor. A low-pass filter was designed to eliminate the vibration noise of the angular velocities of the sensing vehicle during the monitoring process. An in situ test was carried out on the Shuibuya dam, the highest CFRD in the world. The measurements of the FOG monitoring system agreed well with traditional instrument measurements, serving as validation of the system. The FOG monitoring system has the advantages of excellent repeatability, long service life, distributed monitoring, and automatic measurement.
Summary
The internal settlement of the dam body is an important index for evaluating its operation status. In this paper, using the fiber‐optic gyroscope (FOG), an advanced monitoring system for continuously measuring the internal settlement of the rockfill dam was developed, which mainly consists of a pipeline, an intelligent vehicle, and a power unit. The pipeline was composed of seamless steel pipes and polyvinyl chloride polymer connectors, which was buried at a specific elevation of a section of the rockfill dam body to serve as a permanent settlement monitoring channel. The intelligent vehicle was equipped with a high‐precision FOG sensor and an SD card. During the monitoring, a low‐pass filter was employed to eliminate the vibration noise from the angular velocities of the sensing vehicle as it passed through the connectors. The principle of the monitoring system measuring settlement was derived in detail. Finally, this system was applied to measure the in situ internal settlement of the Houziyan rockfill dam at the beginning and 3 years after the operation to verify its feasibility and accuracy.
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