The role of terrestrial 3D LiDAR scan in bridge health monitoring

Abstract

This paper addresses the potential applications of terrestrial 3D LiDAR scanning technologies for bridge monitoring. High resolution ground-based optical-photonic images from LiDAR scans can provide detailed geometric information about a bridge. Applications of simple algorithms can retrieve damage information from the geometric point cloud data, which can be correlated to possible damage quantification including concrete mass loss due to vehicle collisions, large permanent steel deformations, and surface erosions. However, any proposed damage detection technologies should provide information that is relevant and useful to bridge managers for their decision making process. This paper summaries bridge issues that can be detected from the 3D LiDAR technologies, establishes the general approach in using 3D point clouds for damage evaluation and suggests possible bridge state ratings that can be used as supplements to existing bridge management systems (BMS).

Comparative study of bridge management programmes and practices in the USA and China

“…Damage information is calculated automatically by imposing a planer representation of an undamaged surface over the structural defect and aligning the point cloud data. The results of the automated calculations are accurate interpretations of damage depth, area and volume (Liu, Chen, Sajedib, & Hauser, 2010). The width and length of cracks can be precisely quantified using this technique as well as to assess crack limit requirements.…”

Surface damage quantification of postearthquake building based on terrestrial laser scan data

“…The boundaries were identified and are shown in Figure 16. The detailed calculations are described as follows: Table 3 were substituted into Equation 18, and the results is The damage possibility of each triangle was assessed, and the P D results for the selected wall section are presented in Figure 17.…”

“…This study focuses on the application of LiDAR technology with few data collection and processing advances reported. To quantify structural defects, several approaches have been suggested including direct geometric deformation and surface damage measurements based on the LiDAR technology . However, these studies only used the 3D coordinate information.…”

“…To quantify structural defects, several approaches have been suggested including direct geometric deformation and surface damage measurements based on the LiDAR technology. [15][16][17][18][19] However, these studies only used the 3D coordinate information.…”

Crack detection and characterization techniques-An overview

“…Liu et al . and Liu and Chen introduced the Terrestrial 3D Light Detection and Ranging scanner (LiDar) as a remote sensing technique for health monitoring of existing and newly constructed bridges. They proposed an automated bridge evaluation algorithm called LiDar bridge evaluation (LiBE) for on‐site bridge monitoring, which measured the damage area and operated robustly under changing environmental conditions.…”