Study of the application of terrestrial laser scanning for identification of pathologies in concrete structures

Abstract

Laser scanning enhances classic field surveys. It is a remote, active, noninvasive, nondestructive, and high-precision technique to capture reality that records from thousands to millions of points per second in a detailed representation of the situation called a point cloud. The surveys are performed along the object of interest in a process called scanning, which has as its gross product a dense cloud of three-dimensional points of the scanned object. This point cloud stores information about the object’s geometry, return pulse intensity, and point color data. As a way of extending the uses of terrestrial laser scanning, this work studies the application of this method in civil engineering, through the identification of pathologies in reinforced concrete structures, aiming to show how geoinformation can be employed in this area. To this end, a case study of the São Cristóvão Viaduct was conducted in the city of Rio de Janeiro. This study included a definition of the site of analysis; planning and execution of the field survey to collect raw data; processing of the point cloud; and generation of a three-dimensional surface for global visualization of the structure and identification of pathological manifestations and the regions where they were observed.