Influence of equipment, weather and personnel experience on the digitalization and damage detection of concrete bridges

Abstract

AbstractTraditional visual inspections of existing infrastructure have limitations such as safety risks, limited accuracy for subsurface defects, and subjective assessments. Modern inspection techniques like terrestrial laser scanning, closerange photogrammetry (CRP), and infrared scanning offer faster and more accurate data collection, allowing for more informative and precise descriptions of objects, while minimizing traffic disturbances often associated with visual inspections. In this paper, CPR, a non‐destructive survey technique for reconstructing 3D shapes from 2D images, is used for the inspection of five bridges in Northern Sweden. The surveys were performed under different weather conditions, using different data acquisition equipment and personnel with different levels of experience. The acquired images were used to create 3D models of the bridges and to evaluate the evolution of damages over time. Results showed that although better models were created when using equipment with higher specifications, cheap gear such as GoPro or cellphones can also be used for the cases in which a lower level of detail is required. Furthermore, initial experience of the personnel does not seem to have high influence on the results.