Automatic Verticality Monitoring and Securing System for Large Circular Steel Pipes

Abstract

Securing the verticality of foundations is a crucial factor for ensuring safety in offshore construction. The repeated intrusion-pulling method is generally used to ensure verticality in suction bucket foundation construction processes. However, it relies heavily on the experience and skills of field workers and is relatively time-consuming. To address this problem, we propose an automatic verticality securing system for large circular steel pipes based on a verticality monitoring system. This system adjusts cables at locations where verticality correction is required without changing the existing suction pile–penetration–construction process. It includes a monitoring component that provides real-time data on pipe alignment and an automatic lifting cable control system that maintains perpendicularity using data acquired from the monitoring system. The monitoring system comprises a sensor, an embedded controller, and a display program that displays the vertical information of circular steel pipes. The automatic lifting cable control system includes a controller with an algorithm for adjusting the length of the actuator. We showed that the system operates satisfactorily and secures the verticality of less than 0.2° in the suction bucket-based model experiment. Furthermore, the testbed experimental results show that our monitoring system can efficiently measure verticality information in real time.