Micro-Measurements On Top of the World

On May 10, 2013, One World Trade Center became the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere and the third tallest in the world. The building reached its iconic height of 1,776 feet when ironworkers placed the final piece of a 408-foot spire at the top of the building. The spire is self-supporting; however, eight redundant Kevlar support cables were also installed, each anchored to the building and running to the spire. Cable tension is monitored using strain-gage-based load-sensing pins, with data collection provided by Micro-Measurements System 7000.

 

        

 

The geometry of the “instrumented” cables, along with the simultaneous data monitoring, assured equal cable tension during installation and will continue to provide useful information in the future. Although a common application for strain-gage-based sensors – nothing beats the view from atop One World Trade Center.

 

 

 

Richard Snelson's picture

Richard Snelson

President of Measurements Inc.