Combination of High- and Low-Rate GPS Receivers for Monitoring Wind-Induced Response of Tall Buildings

• Published in: Sensors (Basel, Switzerland) Vol. 18; no. 12; p. 4100
• Main Authors: Yi, Zhonghai, Kuang, Cuilin, Wang, Yarong, Yu, Wenkun, Cai, Changsheng, Dai, Wujiao
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland MDPI 23.11.2018; MDPI AG
• Subjects: high-rate GPS; precise point positioning; single-epoch relative positioning; time-differenced positioning; wind-induced vibrations; time-differenced positioning; wind-induced vibrations; high-rate GPS; precise point positioning; single-epoch relative positioning
• ISSN: 1424-8220; 1424-8220
• DOI: 10.3390/s18124100

High-rise buildings are susceptible to wind-induced displacements, which can be precisely monitored by using GPS technology. However, GPS monitoring applications may be subject to signal interference and high hardware costs. This study presents a new wind-induced vibration monitoring approach that is based on the mixed use of high-rate and low-rate GPS receivers. In the proposed approach, high-rate receivers are only required in the monitoring stations, where we apply time-differenced positioning to obtain position changes between adjacent epochs. The derived high-rate monitoring station position changes are then integrated with low-rate single epoch relative positioning results between the monitoring and reference stations. Experimental results with both simulated and real data show that the proposed method has a comparable performance with the traditional relative positioning approach, in terms of determining buildings’ vibration frequency, displacement, and acceleration.