Year-round Monitoring of Temperature and Humidity using a Sensor Network Installed in The Hokkaido Centennial Memorial Tower

Daily and seasonal changes in temperature (T) and relative humidity (RH) were monitored using a sensor network system installed in the Hokkaido Centennial Memorial Tower, built more than 50 years ago using weathering steel, to investigate its corrosion condition. Five T-RH sensors were set at the south side wall, inside the south tower, in the semi-open central area, inside the north tower, and on the north side wall on the 4th, 14th, and 24th floors. The T changed as a function of altitude, location in the floor, season, weather, solar radiation, diurnal cycle, distance from the wall, etc. The highest T of the south wall at daytime in the winter season could rise more than 30 °C even if the outer temperature was below 0 °C due to solar radiation causing the repetition of ice or snow melting in the daytime and freezing of water at night. The change in RH and T inside the tower followed a Tomashov-type RH-T curve (high RH at low T in the morning and evening). In winter, however, T and RH distribution, i.e., high-RH (> ca.60%) area below the freezing point and low-RH area with the high-T, caused air transportation inside the tower, condensation (and freezing) in the low-T area, and drying in the high-T area. In the visual inspections, severe corrosion, such as blistering and peeling, has been observed at the bottom of the tower, where snow has accumulated, and rainwater has stayed for a long time, especially at welds and joints.