Monitoring a large building fleet

More than 2000 fiber optic sensors have been installed in the framework of a building fleet monitoring project, which is probably the largest worldwide. SMARTEC and SOFOTEC have been working together since September 2000 as partners for structural health monitoring projects for public housings in Singapore.

Singapore is a cosmopolitan city-state often described as a gateway to Asia with a city landscape of tall buildings. The Singapore's public housing authority has an impressive record of providing high standard public housing for Singaporeans through a comprehensive building program. As part of a continual improvement program for the newly build residential buildings, long-term structural health monitoring has been initiated. The monitoring is to be performed during the whole lifespan of the buildings, from construction and throughout the service life. The aims of monitoring are:

1. to increase the knowledge concerning the real structural behavior,


2. to control the construction process,


3. to increase the safety during the service,


4. to enhance maintenance activities


5. to evaluate the structural condition after events such as tremor, unexpected weather conditions or terrorists acts.

“It is the first time that the SOFO® fiber optic sensor systems have been used for life cycle monitoring of a large-scale park of high-rise buildings. Besides providing the sensors, SMARTEC also contributed by developing a complete monitoring program, including engineering solutions, data analysis and the software for data interpretation” said Nicoletta Casanova, CEO of SMARTEC. “Our fiber optic systems will contribute to everyone’s safety and peace of mind by monitoring and detecting any anomalies or degradation of the buildings. After a dramatic event, such as an earthquake, people can rapidly be reassured about the safety of their homes and return to their normal lives. We expect this technology to be used on many other buildings worldwide”, she added.
“The top priority of SOFOTEC business philosophy is to fulfill our customer’s needs. We aim not just to provide a system, but a solution to our customers. We have been working very closely together with our customers to resolve any obstacles”, said KP Kwan, Sales & Marketing Director of SOFOTEC and he further emphasized that the foresight and continual efforts of the public housing authority in providing quality housing by exploiting latest building technologies plays a vital role. “Together with the committed supports from SMARTEC, we will jointly make our structural health monitoring application for residential buildings in Singapore a landmark project in the world”, he added.

The main objectives and initial results of this large project can be found in this paper: "Long-term monitoring of high-rise buildings using long-gage fiber optic sensors", B. Glisic, D. Inaudi, J.M. Lau, Y.C. Mok, C.T. Ng,7th International conference on multi-purpose high-rise towers and tall buildings, Dubai, UAM, December 10-11'(2005)