Development of a Visualized Data Management System for Life-Cycle Health Monitoring of Civil Structures

The data management system (DMS) is an essential part for long-term structural health monitoring (SHM) systems, which stores a pool of monitoring data for various applications. A robust database within a DMS is generally used to archive, manage and update life-cycle information of civil structures. However, many applications especially those to large-scale structures provide little support for visualizing the long-term monitoring data. This paper presents the development of an efficient visualized DMS by integrating 4-dimension (4D) model technology, nested relational database, and virtual reality (VR) technology. Spatial data of the 4D model are organized in nested tables, while real-time (temporal) monitoring data are linked to the 4D model. The model is then reconstructed by use of an OpenSceneGraph 3D engine. A user interface is developed to query the database and display the data via the 4D model. To demonstrate its efficiency, the proposed method has been applied to the Canton Tower, a supertall tower-like structure instrumented with a long-term SHM system