Seismic Modelling for Monitoring of Historical Quay Walls and Detection of Failure Mechanisms

Summary Monitoring of historic quay walls is key for the early identification of damages that can lead to the failure and collapse of these structures. Currently used methodologies focus on the detection of deformations by high-resolution mapping of the surface of the constructions. Since the collapse of historic quay walls is usually a consequence of internal failure, we analyse the feasibility of utilising seismic methods for imaging the inner structure of quay walls to assess their current state. For this work, we propose to deploy seismic equipment in the water of the canal from a sailing boat to assess and monitor the construction in land. We perform numerical modelling to simulate data for possible scenarios with different acquisition configurations. Our results suggest that seismic methods are practical and viable for the assessment and monitoring of historical quay walls. We show that the overall structure can be imaged, and potential failure mechanism can be promptly identified. Information about the shallow soil structure can also be retrieved. We expect that this method can help the detection of failure mechanisms at an early stage.