Our
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PROJECT
Embassy Gardens – The Sky Pool Monitoring, UK
Client
> Ballymore Group
Sector/Market
> Property
Services
> Monitoring – Structural & Environmental
Location
> London, UK
Project summary
The Sky Pool is a swimming pool at the Embassy Gardens development in the Nine Elms region of Wandsworth, a borough of southwest London. Sky Pool is made of acrylic and offers a clear view of gardens 35m below which is billed as the world’s first floating pool.
During the hydrotest phase conducted by RPT in London, the pool’s structural performance had to be monitored for detailed analysis to give reassurance to the design and engineering teams for the pool to be put into full use.
The brief
Murphy Geospatial mobilised a team to site on short notice to install a comprehensive autonomous monitoring system, measuring horizontal and vertical relative deflection of the acrylic structure which are underneath the pool and along the two side walls as well as the steel vessels. The system also included manual monitoring to observe the performance of the two buildings connected to The Sky Pool; prior, during and post hydrotest.
The system was setup to allow for around the clock data visualisations and real-time alarming in case the rate of deflection breached the critical limits.
The challenges
The main challenge for Murphy Geospatial was to install adequate instrumentation to measure the behaviour of the acrylic structure, steel vessels, support structure/plinth and tension rods on short notice. An integrated monitoring system consist of flat-mesh wireless sensors, vibrating wire sensors, and multiple ATS system was used, and data were exported to one unique monitoring portal to enable real-time simultaneous data interpretation during all hydrotest phases.
Another challenge was that all the instrumentation had to be installed as accurately as possible at millimetre level, to the proposed location as per the monitoring specification to be able to compare real data against design data.
Murphy Geospatial had to be on site while hydrotest was being carried out, 7am-11pm as data had to be closely tracked and all issues to be rectified as quickly as possible.
Our work
The team installed 3 ATS systems for 37 number of mini l bar prisms and 4 optical displacement sensors to accurately monitor the real-time behaviour of the entire structure resulting from each fill level and also during each hold phases. The system intelligently collected and delivered the real-time data to a remote server. The easy-to-use interface and reporting capability allowed us to provide the client with real-time data to enable them to accurately assess the actual deflections of the structure against the design deflection.
As part of the project,1 thermistor and 2 spring length meters were also installed to measure the spring stack length and interpret against external temperature across all four seasons over a two-year period.
Our team
The team successfully completed the project; ensuring safety and efficiency throughout the duration of the works.
Results
The monitoring team provided accurate and reliable monitoring solutions, measuring the pool’s structural performance as it was filled with water over a set period of time; enabling the client to make informed decisions throughout the project duration. Needless to say, the pool behaved as per its design, giving reassurance to the design and engineering teams for the pool to be put into full use.
Contact
For more information on this project, please contact our UK Monitoring team by emailing info@murphygs.com or call us on +44 (0)192 362 4800
Learn more about our Structural Health Monitoring offering here