Monitoring of thermal deformation of cylindrical storage facilities with DInSAR

Cylindrical storage infrastructure like silos, essential for agricultural commodities, can suffer significant structural failures due to long-term exposure, temperature changes and moisture. While initial designs consider thermal deformation, post-construction health monitoring often requires costly specialized equipments. Drawing upon prior applications of using Differential Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (DInSAR) assessing thermal deformation in transportation infrastructure such as railways and bridges, this investigation extends the methodology to the evaluation of cylindrical storage structures, including both silos and petroleum tankers at multiple locations. This research presents an efficient and cost-effective framework utilizing DInSAR technology for monitoring the structural conditions of large cylindrical storage facilities. The investigation successfully captured seasonal thermal deformations, observing displacement cycles with a range approximately 10–15 mm for targeted cylindrical structures. Significant correlations were identified between DInSAR-measured deformations and the corresponding temperature variations, with fixed roof structures displaying the strongest correlation approximately 0.8. Operational structures, such as tankers and silos undergoing loading and unloading cycles, exhibited moderate correlation coefficients (within the range of 0.46 to 0.67). These preliminary results strongly support the potential of DInSAR for low-cost structural health monitoring of large cylindrical infrastructure.