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Title: Monitoring of Structural Behavior of High-rise Buildings using GPS

Authors: Hyo Seon Park, Associate Professor, Yonsei University

Hong Gyoo Shon, Assistant Professor, Yonsei University
Ill Soo Kim, Graduate Student, Yonsei University
Jae Hwan Park, Graduate Student, Yonsei University

Subject: Structural Engineering

Keywords: Structural Health Monitoring

Structure
Technology

Publication Date: 2004

Original Publication: CTBUH 2004 Seoul Conference

Paper Type: 1. Book chapter/Part chapter

2. Journal paper
3. Conference proceeding
4. Unpublished conference paper
5. Magazine article
6. Unpublished

Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat / Hyo Seon Park; Hong Gyoo Shon; Ill Soo Kim; Jae Hwan
Park
 Monitoring of Structural Behavior of High-rise Buildings using GPS

Hyo Seon Park1, Hong Gyoo Shon2, Ill Soo Kim3, Jae Hwan Park3

1
Associate Professort, Dept. of Architectural Eng., Yonsei University
2
Assistant Professor, Dept. of Civil Eng., Yonsei University
3
Graduate Student, Dept. of Architectural Eng., Yonsei University

Abstract
A new displacement measuring system using GPS is introduced for monitoring of the lateral and torsional
displacements of high-rise buildings. To develop the system, error ranges of the GPS measurement data are
examined by varying the distance between a reference point and measuring points. Also, the feasibility a GPS
displacement monitoring system is investigated through a physical model experiment. A GPS antenna was
mounted on the model, and a laser displacement transducer was installed to measure the actual displacements.
Displacements monitored by GPS were found to agree well with actual displacements. Finally, performance of the
monitoring system is demonstrated in the full-scale monitoring of a 66-story high-rise multi-purpose building.
GPS measurement system was able to accurately resolve movements of a high-rise building into static
displacement and dynamic fluctuating displacement components.

Keywords: Health monitoring, GPS, Lateral displacement, High-rise building

1. Introduction non-structural elements such as damages to finishing

Structural design of high-rise buildings consists of
strength design for assuring safety of the overall
structure or its members, and stiffness design to satisfy
the limits of the maximum lateral displacement at the
top of the building and inter-story drifts. Owing to the
tallness and high slenderness ratio of a high-rise
building, the relative importance of stiffness design is
increasing and structural systems tend to be
determined by results of the stiffness design (Chan et
al. 1995; Park et al. 2002).
In case of a high-rise building that has a relatively
high slenderness ratio greater than 5.0 the quality of
the structural design depends more on satisfying the
serviceability criteria than those of safety (Park and
Park, 1997). Serviceability of high rise buildings
against lateral loads such as wind loads is evaluated in
terms of two types of structural responses: lateral
displacement and horizontal acceleration level.
Excessive lateral displacement can cause structural
problems as well as other diverse problems on
Contact Author: Hyo Seon Park, Associate Prof., Dept. of
Architectural Eng., Yonsei Univ., Seoul 120-749,
Tel: +82-2-2123-2794 Fax: +82-2-365-4668
e-mail: hspark@yonsei.ac.kr
materials, while excessive horizontal acceleration level
can bring feelings of unpleasantness to building
occupants. For these reasons various researches have
been conducted on methods of measuring and
controlling relative lateral displacements and
horizontal acceleration of high-rise buildings.
Measurements of structural responses of high-rise
buildings known so far are based on accelerometers
(Li at al. 2000; Xu and Zhan 2001). The method of
using accelerometers, which are small and light, allows
relatively accurate measurement of horizontal
accelerations under lateral loads. However, it has such
difficulties as problems in displacement reference
point setting, accumulated errors from double
integration, noise introduction from extended cable
connection to storage device, and maintenance
problems of cable and measurement devices. Therefore,
this method is considered rather difficult to apply for
measuring relative displacements of high-rise
buildings consisted of static and dynamic fluctuating
displacements.
As an alternative to the method based on
accelerometers, numerous studies have been conducted

1064 CTBUH 2004 October 10~13, Seoul, Korea

to demonstrate the feasibility of GPS for measurement
of lateral displacements. Case examples of using GPS
for displacement measurement of high-rise building
structures include that Loves et al. (1995) applied the
method on Calgary Tower and Celebi (2000) applied a
GPS measurement technique on simple test models
and a 44-story building. Later, Tamura et al. (2002)
applied RTK-GPS to perform an accurate experiment
and analyzed that the method is useful at
displacements of over 2 cm and natural frequency of 2
Hz or less. Also, Breuer et al. (2002) applied the GPS
method to measurements of ambient vibrations of a
TV-tower and the industrial chimney. Fig. 1. Measurement by DGPS 1
High-rise buildings that are subjected to wind load
experience lateral displacement accompanied by DGPS Accuracy Test
torsional displacements. Measurement of such In developing a lateral displacement monitoring
distortion displacement has not been reported yet. For system of high-rise buildings using GPS, we first
complete displacement monitoring of a high-rise identified the error range by the baseline distance
building, torsional displacements as well as static and between a base station and rover stations of DGPS.
dynamic fluctuating lateral displacements must be Also, we investigated the feasibility of the
measured. displacement measurement using DGPS by artificially
In this paper, we analyzed quantitatively error generating displacements on the test model and
ranges from the baseline distance between a base comparing the GPS measured displacements against
station and rover stations, and tested the feasibility of actual laser measurements.
the displacement measurement using GPS through a
physical model experiment. Also, we applied the Error range by baseline distance
verified displacement measurement system on an In general the impact of ionosphere and the signal
existing high-rise building to monitor delay through the atmospheric layer within 20 km
three-dimensional displacement history including range are considered as common error components.
torsional displacements under wind load. Here, for the sake of accurate observation we varied
the baseline distance to 1 km, 2.5 km, and 4 km and
2. DGPS measured errors for 40 minutes at 1 Hz each as shown
DGPS (Differential Global Positioning System) in Fig. 2.
allows improved point positioning by establishing a
reference station at a known position, compares the
accurate position of the reference station and the
observed position value by GPS receiver to identify
errors, then broadcasts the error information to
measuring station in the area (Fig. 1). DGPS allows
accurate positioning by considering such error
components as satellite orbit error, satellite clock error,
ionosphere and troposphere time delay as common
errors, and eliminating them.

Fig. 2. Accuracy test scheme for DGPS 1

CTBUH 2004 October 10~13, Seoul, Korea 1065

 1.5 Geometric errors in GPS arise from the geometric
arrangement of four or more observed satellites and
1.0
are expressed as PDOP (Position Dilution Of
0.5 Precision) values. Measurement data with PDOP of
five or less can be trusted so that the smaller the PDOP
0.0
X (cm)
-1.5 -1.0 -0.5 0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 value, the less the error. Additionally, multipath
-0.5 caused by environmental conditions around rover
stations causes an error component. In our experiment
-1.0
we obtained measurements at PDOP 3 or less in order
-1.5 to minimize the geometric error factor of GPS. To
Y (cm)
avoid the multipath error, we performed measurements
from school grounds in downtown area for positions A
(a) Baseline distance 1 km and B and from a park away from downtown for
position C (Fig. 2). Measured data were processed
using PPK (Post Processed Kinematic). Then, we
1.5
projected the three-dimensional displacement loci of
1.0 GPS measurements onto a local X-Y plane to represent
it as a two-dimensional displacement as shown in Fig.
0.5
3.
0.0 X (cm) Standard deviations of the data measured with
-1.5 -1.0 -0.5 0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5
Trimble 4700 system for baseline of 10 km or less
-0.5
show horizontal error of 1 cm+1 ppm and vertical
-1.0
error of 2 cm+1 ppm. Measurements of 40 minutes
-1.5
duration for baseline distance of 1 km, 2.5 km, and 4
Y (cm) km prove, as shown in Table 1, that their standard
deviations fall within acceptable confidence intervals.
(b) Baseline distance 2.5 km As Table 1 shows, the variable range at position C
according to its standard deviation was 0.26 cm on
X-axis and 0.23 cm on Y-axis.
1.5

Table 1. Test results for different baseline distances

1.0

A B C
0.5

Baseline distance 1 km 2.5 km 4 km

0.0 X (cm)
-1.5 -1.0 -0.5 0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5

-0.5
+ 0.63 0.76 0.93
X
Displacement - 0.77 1.14 0.74
-1.0 range
(cm) + 0.93 1.62 0.96
-1.5
Y
Y (cm) - 1.27 1.08 0.57
G
Average displacement X -0.01 0.01 0.00
(c) Baseline distance 4 km (cm)
Y -0.02 0.15 0.12

Standard deviation X 0.22 0.28 0.26

Fig. 3. 40-min. measurement of a fixed point with (cm)
Y 0.34 0.47 0.23
different baseline distances

1066 CTBUH 2004 October 10~13, Seoul, Korea

 1.0
Thus, position C had the least variations compared 0.8 Laser displacement meter
GPS
to positions A and B. It is probably because of the 0.6

Displacement (cm)
0.4
location being away from downtown area so that the 0.2

effect of multipath was minimal. 0.0

0 5 10 15 20 25
-0.2

-0.4

Model experiment using GPS, laser displacement -0.6

-0.8

measurement device, and accelerometer -1.0

Time (sec)

As shown in Fig. 4, we installed a GPS receiver,

accelerometers, and a laser displacement meter to (a) Initial displacement 1 cm
compare displacement histories and the level of
2.0
accelerations by two measurement devices in free 1.5
Laser displacement meter
GPS
vibration.

Displacement (cm)
1.0

0.5

0.0
0 5 10 15 20 25
-0.5
Y
+ -1.0

-1.5

-2.0
GPS
Time (sec)
Accelerometer
X
+
Laser displacement meter

Accelerometer Laser displacement meter (b) Initial displacement 2 cm

2 Laser displacement meter

GPS
Displacement (cm)

1
Fig. 4. Experimental model
0
0 5 10 15 20 25

-1

-2

-3 Time (sec)

(c) Initial displacement 3 cm

3 Laser displacement meter

GPS
2
Displacement (cm)

0
0 5 10 15 20 25
-1

Fig. 5. Measurement devices and data acquisition -2

coordinate convention -3

-4

Time (sec)
The experiment body used was a wooden plate of -5

2.44 m by 1.24 m while the six vertical elements were

of D10 rebars (Fig. 5). The model was set into free (d) Initial displacement 4 cm
vibration along X-axis with a given initial
displacement. In order to eliminate Y-axis oscillation
component, we installed braces on vertical rebars and Fig. 6. Displacement measurement by GPS and laser
shock-absorbent pads on connection points to reduce displacement meter
energy loss at these points during free vibration.

CTBUH 2004 October 10~13, Seoul, Korea 1067

 The initial displacement of free vibration was varied
30
from 1 cm to 2 cm, 3 cm, then to 4 cm increasingly
Accelerometer
and measurements were taken at frequency of 5 Hz. 20 Laser displacement meter
GPS
Installation of measurement devices and the data

Acceleration (cm/s )
2
10
acquisition code convention were as shown in Fig. 4.
The results of this experiment showed, as in Fig. 6, 0
0 5 10 15 20 25
that both displacement histories using laser meter and -10

GPS coincided regardless of initial oscillation

-20
amplitude. However, GPS measurements for
displacement amplitude of 0.5 cm or less had a -30 Time (sec)
relatively low confidence level.
Comparison of acceleration as differentiated from (c) Initial displacement 3cm
measured displacements using GPS against actually
measured acceleration using servo-type accelerometer
is shown as in Fig. 7. The GPS and laser meter 40
Accelerometer
accelerations are computed by numerically 30 Laser displacement meter
GPS

Acceleration (cm/s )
differentiating displacement values of three

2
20

consecutive points. As shown in Fig. 6 for the case of 10

displacement history graph, acceleration obtained 0
using GPS receiver coincide quite well with actual 0 5 10 15 20 25
-10
acceleration measured with accelerometer.
-20

10
Accelerometer -30
Laser displacement meter
-40
Time (sec)
GPS
Acceleration (cm/s )

5
2

(d) Initial displacement 4cm

0
0 5 10 15 20 25
Fig. 7. Acceleration measurement by GPS, laser
displacement meter and accelerometer
-5

We then performed Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) on

-10
Time (sec) acceleration data using GPS, laser displacement meter,
and accelerometer, respectively, to compute natural
(a) Initial displacement 1cm frequency of the physical model. The three results
provide identical natural frequency of 0.6 Hz as shown
G
in Fig. 8.

15 0.06
Accelerometer Accelerometer
Laser displacement meter
Laser displacement meter
10 0.05 GPS
GPS 0.6Hz
Acceleration (cm/s )
2

0.04
5
Sx (cm /s )
3
2

0.03
0
0 5 10 15 20 25
0.02
-5

0.01
-10
0.00
-15 0 1 2
Time (sec) Frequency (Hz)
G
(b) Initial displacement 2cm
Fig. 8. Natural frequency comparison by GPS, laser
displacement meter, and accelerometer

1068 CTBUH 2004 October 10~13, Seoul, Korea

 Measuring point
233.9 m
Reference point
42.6 m
600 m
Fig. 9. A high-rise building for full-scale test
3. Full-scale Measurement
Building summary
The building used for real measurements is a
66-story multi-purpose facility of reinforced concrete
structure with shear wall and outrigger system (Fig. 9).
Its height to the heliport where the GPS equipments
were installed is 233.9 m and the slenderness ratio is
6.63.
Measurement equipments
The measurement equipments included GPS
antennas for measuring the building's displacement,
anemometers, which consist of a wind meter (Model
05103) and a display meter (Model 04503) by Young
Inc. The measurable range of wind speed was 0 m/s ~
60 m/s, wind speed accuracy of 0.3 m/s and wind
direction accuracy 3.
GPS equipments used were Trimble 4700 with
dimensions of W 11.9 cm x H 6.6 cm x L 20.8 cm,
weight 1.22 Kg, C/A code and reflection wave L1 and
L2 receiver with automatic OTF initialization from
five SV. The antenna was micro-centered antenna (P/N
14553-01) and the antenna cable was a 10 m low-loss,
dedicated antenna cable (P/N 14553-01).
Measurement summary
The symbol convention for data acquisition was
determined so that the lateral direction was set as
X-axis for convenience of data acquisition as shown in
Fig. 10. In order to measure torsional displacements
we installed GPS_1 at point B of Fig. 11 and GPS_2 at
a distance of 16,182 mm from point B. The GPS base
station as the reference point was installed on the roof
of a five-story apartment building about 600 m away
from the measurement building to ensure no lateral
displacement (Fig. 10).
Y direction (+)
0
Anemometer2
GPS_1 B
X direction (+)
GPS_2
Accelerometer
35.1 m
90
Anemometer1
Base floor plan
42.6 m
Fig. 10. Measurement equipment installation positions
and symbols
Both the base station and rover stations used
Trimble's software to take measurements at 5 Hz and
the data was stored in the computer. The measurement
data was then processed using Trimble Geometric
Office software at 1 Hz. Processed 3-dimensional data
displayed in WGS84 (World Geodetic System 1984)
coordinates was then transformed into
two-dimensional coordinates by establishing a local
X-Y coordinate system on the building roof. Data
measurements were performed for ten minutes
continuously from 16:10 to 16:20 on 22 March 2002.
4. Analysis of Measurement Results
Lateral displacements
Since displacements measured with GPS could be
obtained from comparison of reference point
coordinates and measured coordinates, the reference
point coordinates for relative displacement
measurement were set before de-facto experiment at a
time period with wind speed less than 4.3 m/s.
Displacement measurements were performed on a day
when the wind speed exceeded 10 m/s with yellow
dust storm blowing. The ten-minute measurement of
displacement history at the top of the building is
CTBUH 2004 October 10~13, Seoul, Korea 1069
displayed in three-dimensional displacement loci in Fig. 12 and Fig. 13 show time histories of lateral
global coordinates as shown in Fig. 11. movements of the building for each direction upon
processing of measured displacement data using GPS.
As seen in the measured data the X-axis displacement
during the ten minutes varied in the range -11.7 ~ 20.9
40
mm with a mean of 3 mm, while the Y-axis
displacement varied in the range 31.8 ~ 61 mm with a
20 mean of 44 mm.
Z (mm)

0
Acceleration measured with GPS and accelerometer
We installed two servo-type accelerometers at
-20
position B as shown in Fig. 10 in order to compare
-40
-40
60
80
computed acceleration from GPS measured
-20

X( 0
40
m)
displacement data against acceleration from
mm 20 (m
) 20 Y accelerometers. We performed two stage
40 0
differentiation of X-axis and Y-axis direction GPS
measured displacements to obtain accelerations.
Fig. 11. 3-dimensional movement measured by GPS Comparison of these computed accelerations against
those from accelerometers for 10 seconds within an
hour is as shown in Fig. 14. The result shows that these
25
two sets of accelerations are almost identical.
20
Displacement (mm)

15

10 15
Accelerometer
5
GPS
10

0
Acceleration (mm/s )
2

5
-5

-10 0

-15
-5
0 100 200 300 400 500 600
Time (sec)
-10

Fig. 12. Time history of movement of a 66-story -15

60 62 64 66 68 70
building in X-direction Time (sec)

Fig. 14. Comparison of accelerations form GPS and

65 accelerometers in X-axis acceleration
60
Displacement (mm)

55

50
Estimation of vibration level
Since this building's acceleration response of
45
cross-windward direction is greater than that of
40
windward direction, we used Y-axis acceleration for
35
assessment of the serviceability. Fig. 15 presents
30 comparison of maximum acceleration response on
0 100 200 300 400 500 600 average wind speed of ten minutes measured with GPS
Time (sec) and accelerometers against the forecast equation in the
Japanese habitability evaluation guideline. As seen in
Fig. 13. Time history of movement of a 66-story the figure the maximum computed acceleration values
building in Y-direction

1070 CTBUH 2004 October 10~13, Seoul, Korea


10
Full scale measurement of GPS
Maximun acceleration (cm/s ) Full scale measurement of Accelerometer
AIJ
2
1 Breuer P., Chmielewski T., Grski P., and Konopka E. (2002).
0.1
0.01
1 10
Mean wind speed (m/s)
Fig. 15. Relation between wind speed and acceleration
response in Y-direction
from the two measurement techniques are either
similar or less than that of the estimation equation.
5. Conclusions
As a basic research for development of an objective
and rational high-rise building maintenance and
management system to secure safety of a structure and
to improve serviceability of a building, we proposed a
three-dimensional displacement monitoring system
based on GPS. For the system development we
analyzed error ranges of the GPS measurement data in
terms of base station distance. We then verified the
feasibility of a GPS displacement monitoring system
using a physical model experiment. We applied the
developed system on a 66-story high-rise building to
perform translational and torsional displacement
history monitoring under wind load.
Acknowledgement
This material is based on work sponsored by Korea
Research Foundation under grant KRF-2001-042
-E00137, which is gratefully acknowledged.
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CTBUH 2004 October 10~13, Seoul, Korea 1071