Displacement measurement on the highway ring in Antwerp
Scope
In 2006, the Highway ring around Antwerp has been renovated. The old road surface was replaced with a new kind of concrete. The renovated road surface is foreseen of some special reinforced concrete. At two very important places there is a change from a concrete to an asphalt surface. Between these two surfaces there is a free joint to absorb the thermal expansion between the different materials.
Figure: Installation of the displacement and mountable strain sensors on the highway surface in combination with the interrogation system
The goal of this project is to measure continuously the free joint between these two materials. Due to temperature shifts this joint will increase and decrease. These continuous measurements must give us a perfect view of the behavior of these joints. The measurement system that has been installed on the highway consists of Displacement sensors and Mountable Strain sensors in combination with a high scan frequency interrogation unit.