SURICAT® Sensors: recorders of dynamic properties for buildings and soils
9 December 2022
Looking to the past while projecting into the future, FOPPOLI MORETTA and ASSOCIATI announces the acquisition of two SURICAT® sensors from the renowned company MoHo S.r.l., state-of-the-art instruments for recording the dynamic properties of buildings and soils, to complement its laboratory equipment.
For over twenty years, our firm has specialized in structural diagnostics and monitoring, with a strong focus on culturally significant buildings. In this context, the acquisition of new SURICAT® sensors enhances our capability to perform non-invasive dynamic investigations on civil buildings and infrastructure, allowing us to: (a) detect dynamic behavior and identify vibration thresholds that may pose a risk to historic and artistically valuable structures, in accordance with European standards (UNI 9916, DIN 4150); (b) determine the modal parameters of structures—essential both for calibrating numerical models and for conducting dynamic and seismic monitoring—by exploiting ambient vibrations without introducing any external forcing; and
(c) estimate stress levels in metal tie rods within historic buildings.
In this perspective, SURICAT® sensors enable the achievement of these objectives with maximum flexibility, integrating a set of three geophones (velocity range ±5 to ±100 mm/s, nominal sensitivity 28.5 V/(m/s)) and a set of three accelerometers (acceleration range ±2 to ±6 mm/s, resolution 0.10–0.35 mg), while allowing real-time verification of data acquisition without the need for cabling. The sensors are equipped with a modem and GPS antenna for autonomous synchronization.
