Real Aperture Radar interferometry as a tool for buildings vibration monitoring: limits and potentials from an experimental study

摘要

In the last decade several researchers have dealt with the potential of radar interferometry as a remote sensing tool able to provide measurements of vibrations of large structures. More recently the technique has been consolidated thanks to the recent introduction on the market of specifically devoted radar instruments. Exploiting the interferometric capability of coherent radar, successful monitoring of bridges, towers and wind turbine powers has been achieved. This technique allowed looking at the frequency behaviour of civil structures and estimating their amplitude of displacement in the order of fraction of millimetres. The activity here described reports the results of an experimental investigation aimed at evaluating the effectiveness of a coherent Real-Aperture-Radar sensor to estimate the vibration of buildings in an urban environment, through an ambient vibration testing, where the expected amplitude vibration spans within a few to some tens of microns. Critical aspects affecting the retrieval of this information are here discussed, on the basis of some experimental data collected in the last year with a microwave interferometer working at Ku band and available on the market. Preliminary results are shown and suggestions related to the measurement procedures are discussed.