A new capacitive borehole tiltmeter for crustal deformation measurement and its performance analysis

Borehole inclinometers are important observation instruments used to measure ground tilt movement and monitor crustal deformation of solid tides and geological landslide disasters. They are widely used in oil exploration, mineral resource drilling, well logging, exploration and other fields. There is potential for development of rock stress strain monitoring tools. Many types of tiltmeters have been installed, such as SQ-7, FSQ, VS and JB. However, these tiltmeters are generally installed in a deep cave to avoid the interference of temperature, humidity, and human activities. With the urbanization of human society, suitable installation locations are difficult to find. To solve the problem, a two-component borehole tiltmeter, named the CBT-type tiltmeter, is proposed in this paper. It can be installed in a borehole less than 500 m deep to eliminate environmental influences. The tiltmeter is composed of two sophisticated gravitational swing and two capacitive transducers. From preliminary theory and experiment analysis, its linear correlation coefficient is higher than 0.99, its co-seismic response is rapid and its noise level is up to 10−4 arc seconds in practice.