A system for automated monitoring of embankment deformation along the Qinghai-Tibet Railway in permafrost regions

摘要

At present, the monitoring of embankment deformation in permafrost regions along the Qinghai-Tibet Railway is mainly done manually. However, the harsh climate on the plateau affects the results greatly by lowering the observation frequency, so the manual monitoring can barely meet the observational demand. This research develops a system of automated monitoring of embankment deformation, and aims to address the problems caused by the plateau climate and the permafrost conditions in the region. The equipment consists of a monitoring module, a data collection module, a transmission module, and a data processing module. The field experiments during this program indicate that(1) the combined automated monitoring device overcame the problems associated with the complicated and tough plateau environment by means of wireless transmission and automatic analysis of the embankment settlement data;(2) the calibration of the combined settlement gauge at-20 °C was highly accurate, with an error rate always <0.5%;(3) the gauge calibration at high-temperature conditions was also highly accurate, with an error rate <0.5% even though the surface of the instrument reached more than 50 °C; and(4) compared with the data manually taken, the data automatically acquired during field monitoring experiments demonstrated that the combined settlement gauge and the automated monitoring system could meet the requirements of the monitoring mission in permafrost regions along the Qinghai-Tibet Railway.