Re: Strain / Load Measurement

>Do you have experience in measuring strain / stress along flange
>connection with other method beside Strain Gauge ? The objective is to
>monitor (real time) stress along flange joints which are dragged due to
>foundation movement.

I'd be real curious why you're asking. Have to tried strain gauges (presumably bonded electrical resistance gauges)? What features are you looking for? It's hard to beat a weldable strain gauge for simplicity.

You might want to consider something that figures foundation movement alone. When you measure strain on a flange there you get total strain due to everything that loads the pipe from wind to pressure to temperature. Have you thought about how you sort foundation movement from all the rest? If you don't start your measurement from a known stress state--preferably zero stress, you won't know absolute stress, just the incremental stress from the time you installed the gauge. You might have better luck measuring absolute movement with a laser theodolite and calculating the incremental stress.

Christopher Wright P.E.    |"They couldn't hit an elephant at
chrisw@skypoint.com        | this distance"   (last words of Gen.
___________________________| John Sedgwick, Spotsylvania 1864)