Millimeter-Accuracy Structural Deformation Monitoring Using Stand-Alone GPS: Case Study in Beijing, China
Publication: Journal of Surveying Engineering
Volume 144, Issue 1
Abstract
Structural monitoring and engineering surveys that use the Global Positioning System (GPS) have traditionally performed using a so-called carrier-phase double-difference method in data processing. The method requires at least one reference GPS station to be continuously operated in the field during the monitoring period. The stability and data quality of the reference station would directly affect the accuracy of displacement measurements at the rover station. Furthermore, it becomes increasingly difficult to maintain “ideal” reference stations in urban environments. This article introduces a method for using stand-alone GPS units to conduct millimeter-accuracy structural deformation monitoring for poststudy or for near real-time structural health monitoring. Two years of continuous GPS observations obtained from two high-rise buildings in Beijing were used to depict the detailed method. The method comprises three steps: (1) solving GPS antenna positions with respect to a global reference frame (IGS08), (2) establishing a stable local reference frame and transforming the global positions into the local reference frame, and (3) deriving a regional seasonal model and correcting GPS-derived positional time series with the regional model. It is concluded that 2- to 3-mm horizontal accuracy and 5- to 7-mm vertical accuracy can be achieved for daily solutions with the proposed method in the Beijing metropolitan area. The key products from this study are the Stable Beijing Reference Frame (SBJRF) and the local seasonal model for GPS-derived (vertical) positional time series. SBJRF will be incrementally improved and periodically updated to synchronize with the update of the IGS reference frame. The general theory and method presented in this article could be applied to other urban areas for conducting structural health monitoring in near real time.
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Acknowledgments
This study was supported by awards from the National Science Foundation of China (NSFC: No. 51528801) and the National Science Foundation (NSF) of the United States (NSF: DUE-1243582 and OISE-1460034). The authors appreciate Dr. Kun Liang and the National Institute of Metrology of China (NIM) for sharing the GPS data from IMEJ. The authors thank the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Caltech, for providing the GIPSY-OASIS 6.4 software package used to generate the PPP solutions for this research. The authors acknowledge UNAVCO for providing the GPS data from BJFS, SA34, and BJNM to the public. The Key Laboratory of Urban Security and Disaster Engineering of the Ministry of Education (China) at the Beijing University of Technology provided funds to purchase GPS equipment and conduct field instrumentation.
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Published In
Journal of Surveying Engineering
Volume 144 • Issue 1 • February 2018
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© 2017 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Feb 28, 2017
Accepted: Jul 21, 2017
Published online: Nov 10, 2017
Published in print: Feb 1, 2018
Discussion open until: Apr 10, 2018
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