Geotechnical News March 2011
35
GEOTECHNICAL INSTRUMENTATION NEWS
INSITE Web Based Data Management
Software
Angus Maxwell, Maxwell Geosystems Ltd
Maxwell Geosystems have promoted
the wider use of Observational
Engineering within construction. Our
INSITE systems have enabled projects
to shorten the processing time from a
few hours down to a few minutes and
have encouraged engineers to specify
more instrumentation and to rely on
the results to give feedback on design.
This has enabled them to refine designs
and to rely on what the constructions
are telling them rather than solely of
the factor of safety assumed. These
methods have improved safety on site
and have lead to real savings in time
and money.
Speed and Flexibility
INSITE is designed as a dual layer
system to optimize web speed. Raw
data is held on local servers and
is processed on the fly. Processed
data is held on the web in simplified
forms to enable superfast download
and display. This redundancy means
the web data can be recreated at any
time. Local INSITE SERVER systems
pull data from a variety of sources
and check the data for integrity and
credibility. Local administrators can
use built in procedures to audit the data
and quarantine any that may require
further review. All changes to the data
are time and user stamped. Back ups
are automatic and in some situations
continuous archiving is required where
data volumes are large. The current
record for one project is 25 million
records.
Over 30 instrument types are cur-
rently supported and new types are
added as required. INSITE can be cus-
tomized to read structured data from
any source visible to the program on lo-
cal or wide area networks. This means
that if you have a format that you like
and it is consistent INSITE can be cus-
tomized to read it. INSITE has over 70
pre-defined file based data input for-
mats. All major data logger types are
supported including most ADMS and
vibration systems.
Observational Engineering
Instrumentation data is of limited use if
the causes of movement are not clear.
INSITE integrates setting out details for
construction elements and tracks their
progress along with other parameters
Figure 1. These may be manually
entered or drawn from construction
logger such as tunnel boring machines.
With our optional INSITE TDMS a
full suite of construction progress and
programme data is fully integrated into
the software.
All data is displayed in our own
custom GIS environment in both map
(XY) and sectional (Chainage, level)
views. All views allow full dynamic
zooming and easy addition of new
layers. The data can also be displayed
in Google Earth and displayed as 3D
views (contours surfaces) and even
animated.
To aid the preparation of reports we
have included binders both on the local
side and web side to enable automatic
production of reports to Excel and PDF.
INSITE Servers send alarms as
emails and SMS messages. These are
handled by our portal AAA blog which
tracks responses. All our web portals
are accessible by smart phones to en-
able responses to alarms to be made on
the fly.
Powerful Analysis Options
INSITE is the first monitoring package
to offer a dynamic alarm facility in
which alarms can be linked to progress,
proximity and prediction. This scheme
enables actions to be taken ahead
of time so that rather than requiring
movements to be reversed they can
be slowed to bring the construction
back into the target zone. INSITE
also includes the facility to group
instruments into combinations so that
a secondary parameter can be defined.
Tested on the Largest Projects
INSITE has been used in Hong Kong,
Australia and Singapore. Projects have
included embankments on soft clay,
deep excavations, soft rock NATM
tunnels and on a variety of TBM and
Drill and Blast tunnels. INSITE is
currently monitoring SE Asia’s two
largest projects: the Express Rail Link
in Hong Kong (HK$67 billion) and
the Airport Link in Brisbane (A$5.6
billion).
Dr Angus Maxwell, Director,
Maxwell Geosystems Ltd.
1701-1702 Bonham Strand Trade
Centre, 135 Bonham Strand,
Sheung Wan, Hong Kong
Tel +(852) 2581-2288, Direct +(852)
2987-6101, Fax +(852) 2987-2700
Figure 2. Animation helps bring out re-
lationships in data.
Figure 1. Construction and instrument
data in one environment.
