Elephant Shelter at the Zürich Zoo

The new Elephant shelter at the Zürich Zoo features a unique wooden roof system of an impressive span ~80m. The novel construction can benefit from the use of monitoring which may serve as means for both identifying the behavior of this system.

The Chair of Structural Mechanics group has installed a set of fiber optic sensors (FBGs) at selected locations in order to monitor strains in the concrete ring which supports the wooden roof. Once fully installed, the monitoring system can provide a twofold benefit. On one hand, it can act as a means of triggering in case of an extreme event (significant deformation/strain) appearing. On the other hand, it could work together with the engineers in order to update the numerical tool used for the design of the structure and to supply information on the overall behavior and response both in a short and long term basis.

Projects partners:

Marmota (FBG sensor providers, data interpretation consultation)

Micron Optics

Smartec (Reading Unit providers)