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Surveyors, structural engineers and geotechnical engineers may all use instruments to measure buildings.

Some examples:

Surveyors may measure buildings to ensure they are built in exactly the right place and at the right size. They would normally do this using a theodolite, which in it's modern form includes high precision GPS, a digital compass, laser range finder and digital inclinometer.

Structural engineers may use strain gauges to measure deformation within a structural element within a building to study it's response to loading.

A geotechnical engineer may monitor a building using strain gauges and inclinometers to observe it's response to nearby excavations. A famous example of this is the London Underground Jubilee line extension where the clock tower housing Big Ben was monitored for tilting during the tunnelling process and was found to move approximately 12.5 mm out of plumb during construction which was within the safe tolerances specified by the structural engineers. To maintain this safe tolerance a method known as compensation grouting was used whereby a cement grout was injected into the ground causing uplift which counteracted the settlement due to the excavation of material during tunnelling.

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15y ago

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