#ARCTIC. #SIBERIA. THIS IS TAIMYR. The geotechnical monitoring system launched by Nornickel in Norilsk as a pilot project has shown its effectiveness. In the future, it will cover the main industrial facilities of the company and the residential infrastructure of Norilsk. Full implementation of the system will ensure environmental safety and operational reliability of buildings and structures in Arctic conditions.
The first project – Monitoring System for Buildings and Structures – was launched at the emergency diesel fuel storage facilities of the thermal power plants of the Norilsk-Taimyr Energy Company (NTEK). The amount of investments in the pilot project is 50.5 million rubles.
“The project goal is to provide constant automated monitoring of the permafrost soils temperature and the deformation behavior of the foundations. Such monitoring will make it possible to carry out trouble-free operation of facilities, timely identify potentially dangerous defects and deviations that can lead to damage to buildings and structures or their individual elements”, the Nornickel explained.
The information from the sensors goes to the local data collection center. The operator monitors the status of the main safety parameters of the facility in real time. Before the installation of the automated control system, monitoring was carried out in manual mode.
This year, 150 different objects of the company are planned to be equipped with a system for monitoring the temperature state of the foundation soils, the temperature and humidity conditions of technical subfields and the deformation behavior of foundation structures. 375 new temperature wells have been already drilled, and the existing ones have been restored.
The Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the Norilsk State Industrial Institute, in which a permafrost laboratory was specially created, are also involved in the study of permafrost in built-up areas.
According to scientists, the soil foundations of objects during their operation in the event of an increase in temperature can change significantly: a decrease in the bearing capacity may occur, which in turn increases the likelihood of emergency situations. Therefore, the introduction of an automated geotechnical monitoring system is very important.
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Text: Angelica Stepanova, Photo: Nornickel press office
