National Instruments Checks on Olympic Games Safety

The China Earthquake Administration (CEA), the governmental body managing the country’s earthquake preparedness and disaster mitigation, has implemented a structural health monitoring (SHM) solution based on National Instruments (NI) LabVIEW graphical system design platform and NI CompactRIO programmable automation controllers.

The systems are designed to aid engineers in conducting structural health research on seven recently constructed megastructures in China including both of the main venues for the 2008 Summer Olympics – the Beijing National Stadium and the National Aquatics Center. The data collected will be used to improve the structural integrity of future buildings and reduce the number of lives lost from catastrophic events.

NI technology is said to have been selected over other solutions because of the ability to offer continuous, real-time monitoring, time-based GPS synchronization and the highest channel count for the lowest cost.

In addition to the Olympic venues, the SHM systems are deployed in the World Trade Center in Shanghai, the Park Hyatt Hotel complex in Beijing, a 240 meter concrete arch dam in Ertan, a 8266 meter cable-stayed bridge in Shan-Tou, and a base-isolated CEA data center in Beijing.