The University of Southampton
University of Southampton Institutional Repository

A wireless high-speed data acquisition system for geotechnical centrifuge model testing

A wireless high-speed data acquisition system for geotechnical centrifuge model testing
A wireless high-speed data acquisition system for geotechnical centrifuge model testing

This paper describes a novel high-speed wireless data acquisition system (WDAS) developed at the University of Western Australia for operation onboard a geotechnical centrifuge, in an enhanced gravitational field of up to 300 times Earth's gravity. The WDAS system consists of up to eight separate miniature units distributed around the circumference of a 0.8 m diameter drum centrifuge, communicating with the control room via wireless Ethernet. Each unit is capable of powering and monitoring eight instrument channels at a sampling rate of up to 1 MHz at 16-bit resolution. The data are stored within the logging unit in solid-state memory, but may also be streamed in real-time at low frequency (up to 10 Hz) to the centrifuge control room, via wireless transmission. The high-speed logging runs continuously within a circular memory (buffer), allowing for storage of a pre-trigger segment of data prior to an event. To suit typical geotechnical modelling applications, the system can record low-speed data continuously, until a burst of high-speed acquisition is triggered when an experimental event occurs, after which the system reverts back to low-speed acquisition to monitor the aftermath of the event. Unlike PC-based data acquisition solutions, this system performs the full sequence of amplification, conditioning, digitization and storage on a single circuit board via an independent micro-controller allocated to each pair of instrumented channels. This arrangement is efficient, compact and physically robust to suit the centrifuge environment. This paper details the design specification of the WDAS along with the software interface developed to control the units. Results from a centrifuge test of a submarine landslide are used to illustrate the performance of the new WDAS.

Data acquisition system, Geotechnical centrifuge, Micro-controller, Wireless
0957-0233
Gaudin, C.
4d1197f0-7c69-4301-8877-33f840784685
White, D.J.
a986033d-d26d-4419-a3f3-20dc54efce93
Boylan, N.
a74ded07-8f6f-4198-bdc9-76e9693091b1
Breen, J.
04431c91-cb72-4c39-90e6-c77f1138ff8b
Brown, T.
65b220ab-5839-4e03-b923-97694339baaf
De Catania, S.
63524650-fbba-45a9-be87-cf5647b9effa
Hortin, P.
46d7b9bd-0a13-46c8-8dbf-5cf3680e614b
Gaudin, C.
4d1197f0-7c69-4301-8877-33f840784685
White, D.J.
a986033d-d26d-4419-a3f3-20dc54efce93
Boylan, N.
a74ded07-8f6f-4198-bdc9-76e9693091b1
Breen, J.
04431c91-cb72-4c39-90e6-c77f1138ff8b
Brown, T.
65b220ab-5839-4e03-b923-97694339baaf
De Catania, S.
63524650-fbba-45a9-be87-cf5647b9effa
Hortin, P.
46d7b9bd-0a13-46c8-8dbf-5cf3680e614b

Gaudin, C., White, D.J., Boylan, N., Breen, J., Brown, T., De Catania, S. and Hortin, P. (2009) A wireless high-speed data acquisition system for geotechnical centrifuge model testing. Measurement Science and Technology, 20 (9), [095709]. (doi:10.1088/0957-0233/20/9/095709).

Record type: Article

Abstract

This paper describes a novel high-speed wireless data acquisition system (WDAS) developed at the University of Western Australia for operation onboard a geotechnical centrifuge, in an enhanced gravitational field of up to 300 times Earth's gravity. The WDAS system consists of up to eight separate miniature units distributed around the circumference of a 0.8 m diameter drum centrifuge, communicating with the control room via wireless Ethernet. Each unit is capable of powering and monitoring eight instrument channels at a sampling rate of up to 1 MHz at 16-bit resolution. The data are stored within the logging unit in solid-state memory, but may also be streamed in real-time at low frequency (up to 10 Hz) to the centrifuge control room, via wireless transmission. The high-speed logging runs continuously within a circular memory (buffer), allowing for storage of a pre-trigger segment of data prior to an event. To suit typical geotechnical modelling applications, the system can record low-speed data continuously, until a burst of high-speed acquisition is triggered when an experimental event occurs, after which the system reverts back to low-speed acquisition to monitor the aftermath of the event. Unlike PC-based data acquisition solutions, this system performs the full sequence of amplification, conditioning, digitization and storage on a single circuit board via an independent micro-controller allocated to each pair of instrumented channels. This arrangement is efficient, compact and physically robust to suit the centrifuge environment. This paper details the design specification of the WDAS along with the software interface developed to control the units. Results from a centrifuge test of a submarine landslide are used to illustrate the performance of the new WDAS.

This record has no associated files available for download.

More information

Published date: 11 August 2009
Keywords: Data acquisition system, Geotechnical centrifuge, Micro-controller, Wireless

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 419869
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/419869
ISSN: 0957-0233
PURE UUID: 325f9945-c036-461f-900c-d64abdc67900
ORCID for D.J. White: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-2968-582X

Catalogue record

Date deposited: 23 Apr 2018 16:30
Last modified: 16 Mar 2024 04:32

Export record

Altmetrics

Contributors

Author: C. Gaudin
Author: D.J. White ORCID iD
Author: N. Boylan
Author: J. Breen
Author: T. Brown
Author: S. De Catania
Author: P. Hortin

Download statistics

Downloads from ePrints over the past year. Other digital versions may also be available to download e.g. from the publisher's website.

View more statistics

Atom RSS 1.0 RSS 2.0

Contact ePrints Soton: eprints@soton.ac.uk

ePrints Soton supports OAI 2.0 with a base URL of http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/cgi/oai2

This repository has been built using EPrints software, developed at the University of Southampton, but available to everyone to use.

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue without changing your settings, we will assume that you are happy to receive cookies on the University of Southampton website.

×