Assessment of Dynamic Measurement Accuracy of GPS in Three Directions
Publication: Journal of Surveying Engineering
Volume 132, Issue 3
Abstract
Global positioning system (GPS) technology is an emerging tool for measuring and monitoring both static and dynamic displacement responses of large civil engineering structures to gust winds. The accuracy of dynamic displacement measurement using GPS at a subcentimeter to millimeter level, however, depends on many factors such as data sampling rate, satellite coverage, atmospheric effect, multipath effect, and GPS data processing methods. This paper aims to assess the dynamic displacement measurement accuracy of GPS in three orthogonal directions for applications in civil engineering. For this purpose, a motion simulation table was first developed as a test station, simulating various types of 2D motions of either tall buildings in a horizontal plane or long-span bridges in a vertical plane. The antenna of a GPS receiver was then installed on the motion simulation table and was used to measure the table motion in an open area. A band-pass filtering scheme was finally designed and applied to the table motion data recorded by the GPS. The comparison of the table motion recorded by the GPS with the original motion generated by the table shows that the GPS can measure horizontal and vertical dynamic displacements accurately within a certain amplitude and frequency range. The test results also demonstrate that the GPS can trace wind-induced dynamic displacement responses measured from a tall building in the horizontal plane and a long-span bridge deck in the vertical plane satisfactorily.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
Acknowledgments
The writers would like to express their sincere gratitude and appreciation to Penta-Ocean Construction Company Limited for their kind permission to conduct field measurements on their site. The Lands Department of The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) is gratefully acknowledged for providing two Leica AT504 chock ring antennas. Special thanks are extended to Leica Geosystems Limited (Hong Kong) for providing two Leica GX1230 GPS receivers for the tests. In addition, the writers would like to thank Mr. T. T. Wai and the staff of the Department of Land Surveying and Gee-Informatics in The Hong Kong Polytechnic University for their help in conducting the tests. Thanks also go to The Hong Kong Polytechnic University for offering a postgraduate scholarship to the first writer for her Ph.D. study and the Research Grants Council of Hong Kong for awarding an RGC research grant (PolyU5299/05E) to the second and third writers.
References
Ashkenazi, V., and Roberts, G. W. (1997). “Experimental monitoring of the Humber Bridge using GPS.” Proc. Inst. of Civ. Eng. (UK), 120, 177–182.
Breuer, P., Chmielewski, T., Gorski, P., and Konopka, E. (2002). “Application of GPS technology to measurements of displacements of high-rise structures due to weak winds.” J. Wind. Eng. Ind. Aerodyn., 90, 223–230.
Celebi, M., and Sanli, A. (2002). “GPS in pioneering dynamic monitoring of long-period structures.” Earthquake Spectra, 18(1), 47–61.
Chen, Y. Q., Huang, D. F., Ding, X. L., Xu, Y. L., and Ko, J. M. (2001). “Measurement of vibrations of tall buildings with GPS: A case study.” Proc., Health Monitoring and Management of Civil Infrastructure Systems, SPIE, Bellingham, Wash., 477–484.
Fujino, Y., Murata, M., Okano, S., and Takeguchi, M. (2000). “Monitoring system of the Akashi Kaikyo Bridge and displacement measurement using GPS.” Proc., Nondestructive Evaluation of Highways, Utilities, and Pipelines IV, SPIE, Bellingham, Wash., 229–236.
Ge, L., Chen, H. Y., Han, S., and Rizos, C. (2000). “Adaptive filtering of continuous GPS results.” J. Geodesy, Berlin, 74, 577–580.
GPS 1200 Series v1. (2004). Leica Geosystems, St. Gallen, Switzerland.
Hofmann-Wellenhof, B., Lichtenegger, H., and Collins, J. (2001). GPS: Theory and practice, 5th Ed., Springer, New York.
Kijewski, T. (2003). “Full scale measurements and system identification: A time-frequency perspective.” Ph.D. thesis, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, Ind.
Kijewski, T., and Kareem, A. (2001). “Full-scale study of the behavior of tall buildings under wind.” Proc., Health Monitoring and Management of Civil Infrastructure Systems, SPIE, Bellingham, Wash., 441–450.
Lovse, J. W., Teskey, W. F., Lachapelle, G., and Canon, M. E. (1995). “Dynamic deformation monitoring of tall structure using GPS technology.” J. Surv. Eng., 121(1), 35–40.
Nakamura, S. (2000). “GPS measurement of wind-induced suspension bridge girder displacements.” J. Struct. Eng., 126(12), 1413–1419.
Ogaja, C., Rizos, C., Wang, J., and Brownjohn, J. (2001). “A dynamic GPS system for on-line structural monitoring.” Proc., Int. Symp. on Kinematic Systems in Geodesy, Geomatics, & Navigation, Springer, New York, 290–297.
Protopsalti, K., et al. (2004). “Accuracy of simple GPS kinematic techniques: Evidence from experiments and implications for the study of large flexible engineering structures.” Proc., 1st FIG Int. Symp. on Engineering Surveys for Construction Works and Structural Engineering, International Federations of Surveyors, Frederiksberg, Denmark, ⟨http://www.fig.net/nottingham/proc/ts_01_3_protopsalti_etal.pdf⟩.
Tamura, Y., Matsui, M., Pagnini, L.-C., Ishibashi, R., and Yoshida, A. (2002). “Measurement of wind-induced response of buildings using RTK-GPS.” J. Wind. Eng. Ind. Aerodyn., 90, 1983–1973.
Wolf, P. R., and Ghilani, C. D. (2002). Elementary surveying: An introduction to geomatics, 10th Ed., Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, N.J.
Wong, K. Y., Man, K. L., and Chan, W. Y. (2001). “Application of global positioning system to structural health monitoring of cable-supported bridge.” Proc., Health Monitoring and Management of Civil Infrastructure Systems, SPIE, Bellingham, Wash., 390–401.
Xu, Y. L., Ko, J. M., and Zhang, W. S. (1997). “Vibration studies of Tsing Ma Suspension Bridge.” J. Bridge Eng., 2(4), 149–156.
Xu, Y. L., and Zhan, S. (2001). “Field measurements of Di Wang Tower during Typhoon York.” J. Wind. Eng. Ind. Aerodyn., 89, 73–93.
Xu, Y. L., Zhu, L. D., Wong, K. Y. and Chan, K. W. Y. (2000). “Field measurement results of Tsing Ma Suspension Bridge during Typhoon Victor.” Struct. Eng. Mech., 10(6), 545–559.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Surveying Engineering
Volume 132 • Issue 3 • August 2006
Pages: 108 - 117
Copyright
© 2006 ASCE.
History
Received: Jan 25, 2005
Accepted: Sep 2, 2005
Published online: Aug 1, 2006
Published in print: Aug 2006
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Download citation
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.