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Geotechnical News • June 2014
23
GEOTECHNICAL INSTRUMENTATION NEWS
Introduction by John Dunnicliff, Editor
This is the seventy-eighth episode of GIN. Two articles this time.
Performance of
ShapeAccelArray (SAA)
The first article, by Derrick Dasen-
brock, describes the very positive
experience of Minnesota Department
of Transportation with the SAA instru-
ment. Please read my
Editor’s Note
at
the end, indicating my concern about
including this article in GIN because
it may appear to favor one of the items
in our tool box too strongly. I’d like to
hear from others about their experi-
ences.
Report on a workshop
The second article, by Bob Bachus,
reports on a discussion of methods for
geotechnical data management and
visualization. We’ve tried to make
this more useful that a mere report by
including some technical information
that we hope will be helpful to read-
ers. If you’d like to have more ‘meat’,
please contact the author.
Is anybody there?
In the previous episode of GIN I
asked,
“Do you want GIN to con-
tinue? The ball is in your court.”
Not a single ball has come my way. I
know that some of you read this stuff,
so …!
International Course on
Geotechnical and Structural
Monitoring
Here’s a status report on the course to
be held in Italy on June 4-6 this year
(www.geotechnicalmonitoring.com).
We seem to have a tiger by the tail! At
the time of writing, almost two months
before the start of the course, there is
no more capacity in our 95-seat room
in the 10
th
century castle. We have
more than ten on the overbooking list.
Registrants are from 32 countries
(see the graphic), predominately from
Europe but also from Asia, North and
South America, Africa and Australia.
Now that we’re encouraged by the
worldwide interest in the course, we
plan to offer a second course on 4-6
June, 2015
,
also in Tuscany - the same
region as the 2014 course. Perhaps in
Poppi, perhaps elsewhere. The 2015
edition will not be an exact repeat, as
we already have ideas for different
topics, and of course we’ll learn from
evaluations of the 2014 course
Closure
Please send contributions to this
column, or an abstract of an article for
GIN, to me as an e-mail attachment in
MSWord, to john@dunnicliff.eclipse.
co.uk, or by mail: Little Leat, Whis-
selwell, Bovey Tracey, Devon TQ13
9LA, England. Tel. +44-1626-832919.
Nien Nien nu e. Kong Chien (China)
Performance observations of MEMS ShapeAccelArray (SAA)
deformation sensors
Derrick Dasenbrock
Introduction
Historically, traversing-probe incli-
nometers, settlement platforms, or
survey hubs with manual surveys
have been used for monitoring slope
stability, settlement of embankments
or movement of foundations or struc-
tures. Today, automated technologies
to assess deformation include robotic
total station systems, hydraulic settle-
ment systems, in-place inclinometers,
ShapeAccelArray (SAA) systems
(www.measurandgeotechnical.com),
and remote sensing methods. Costs
and benefits of monitoring techniques
need to be evaluated to see if they
are well suited to project needs. SAA
systems appear to have a particular