Dimensional accuracy and structural performance assessment of spatial structure components using 3D laser scanning

Spatial structures have been constructed around the world, and their components have become increasingly complicated. Quality inspection is primarily manually performed and is a labor intensive approach which is prone to error. Developments in 3D laser scanning offer great opportunities to improve the precision and efficiency of quality control operations. This paper presents a new approach for assessing the dimensional accuracy and structural performance of spatial structure elements using 3D laser scanning. The proposed approach establishes a holistic assessment framework by considering the evaluation parameters, optimized scanning strategy, and data processing. A data processing method is developed to automatically calculate and compare the difference between the reverse model and design model based on point cloud processing, reverse modeling, and finite element analysis. A new algorithm is proposed to automatically extract the point cloud boundaries, and it is capable of streamlining the generation of reverse models. The assessment criteria and error control for the framework are quantitatively described in a systematic manner. The proposed approach is tested and demonstrated through an actual project. The results show that using 3D laser scanning for the quality control of spatial structure elements is suitable and validate that applicability of the proposed approach compared to traditional measurement methods.