Tiltmeter Chains Tool
The Tiltmeter Chains Tool allows users to group wireless tiltmeters into sequential “chains” for calculating structural displacements along vertical or horizontal alignments. These chains provide accurate and continuous displacement profiles, supporting early detection of settlement, uplift, or bending in critical structures.
This tool is particularly suited for monitoring facades, retaining walls, bridges, decks, embankments, slabs, and tunnel crowns.
1. Creating and Configuring Chains
To begin, access the Tools section and select Tiltmeter Chains Tool. You can now configure a new chain (also referred to as a “Section”) with the following parameters:
Name (required)
Description (optional)
Ordered list of sensors (minimum: 1; maximum: 100)
Orientation: Vertical or Horizontal (not editable after creation)
Angle of interest: PHI or THETA (required for horizontal chains)
Distance (d) between sensors in the chain
Sensors must be correctly installed according to axis conventions (see the “Installation” section). Each sensor may belong to multiple chains.
2. Output Parameters
Once a chain is configured, the platform automatically begins calculating displacement metrics. Outputs are computed only when a complete acquisition (event) is available across the entire chain.
Displacement
Calculated cumulatively from the chain’s starting point.
Available for each sensor and for both PHI and THETA angles (if vertical), or one angle (if horizontal).
Units selectable: mm, cm, m, inches, foot.
Differential Displacement
Requires a baseline event selected by the user.
Shows the deviation (positive or negative) from that reference state.
Units selectable: mm or inches.
Maximum Displacement
Displayed as a statistical value, the Maximum Displacement refers to the highest absolute value of Displacement (Disp) or Differential Displacement (DiffDisp) observed along the chain.
It is calculated per event, meaning that for each acquisition shown in the graph, the system determines the sensor within the chain that recorded the highest displacement. Among all these per-event values, the overall maximum among maxima is identified and displayed, along with the corresponding timestamp and sensor index.
3. Data Visualization
The tool provides two different methods for selecting the data to be visualized in the graphs. These can be accessed via the “Show acquisitions” button in the top-right corner:
Aggregated Data (default): Displays 30 evenly distributed data points across the selected time range. This automatic sampling is useful for identifying general trends without manual filtering.
Acquisition History: Allows users to manually browse and select specific acquisition events to be visualized. Events can be filtered and sorted as needed, providing full control over the dataset displayed in the graphs.
Deformation Profile
X-axis: Displacement (Disp or DiffDisp)
Y-axis: Cumulative distance from chain origin (Vertical) or vice versa (Horizontal)
Each line represents a single timestamp across all sensors.
Traces are colored with a gradient, where darker lines indicate more recent timestamps and lighter lines represent older data, providing a quick visual reference of the temporal progression.
Displacement trend
X-axis: Timestamps
Y-axis: Displacement values for each sensor
Displays the evolution of PHI and/or THETA over time, sensor by sensor.
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