Project

Before an an oil storage facility could recommission some retired tanks, plant engineers engineers had to address concerns about the pile foundations of these tanks. Specifically, they needed early warning of settlements or differential movement of the tank foundation as the tanks were filled. GEO-Instruments provided a real-time monitoring system with sensors enclosed in explosion-proof enclosures.

Instrumentation

The GEO-Instruments monitoring system included tiltmeters, data loggers, and web-based data processing and reporting. The foundation ring of each tank was instrumented with four, high-resolution, electrolevel tiltmeters. The tiltmeters were housed in explosion proof enclosures and data loggers were located outside the hazard zone.

Automated Monitoring

To provide near real-time data, readings collected by the data loggers were forwarded to a web-based monitoring application running on a GEO-Instruments server. The application checked incoming readings for alarm conditions and then updated displays and trend plots. Users could access these via their web browsers. Alarm notifications could be sent by email or SMS text messages and would also also appear in web browsers.

Result

The near real time data from the system helped plant engineers manage the risk involved in recommissioning the retired tanks and allowed the facility to provide economical, safe storage for high demand fuel oil.