This work investigates the possibility of developing a non-contact, non-line of sight sensor to measure interstorey
drift through simulation and experimental validation.
• The method uses frequency-modulated continuous wave (FMCW) radar to measure displacement. This method is
commonly in use in a number of modern applications, including aircraft altimeters and automotive parking sensors.
• The technique avoids numerous problems found in contemporary structural health monitoring methods, namely
integral drift errors and structural modification requirements.
• The smallest achievable detection error in displacement was found to be as low as 0.26%, through simulated against
the displacement response of a single degree of freedom structure subject to ground motion excitation.
• This was verified during experimentation, when a corner-style reflector was placed on a shake table running ground
motion data taken from the 4th September 2010 earthquake in Christchurch. These results confirmed the
conclusions drawn from simulation
