Automated Determination of the Volume of Loose Engineering Deposits Using Terrestrial Laser Scanning

Abstract

A new method for automatic volume determination of loose engineering deposits (LEDs) using point clouds collected by terrestrial laser scanning is proposed. The method starts with a problem of lacking bottom surface point clouds when scanning LEDs, assuming that the bottom surface is flat, a spatial plane is generated based on the plane fitting to the bottom surface. Then the sample point cloud is projected on this fitted plane to construct the subface point clouds, which, together with the initial point cloud data, are stitched into complete point cloud data with good closure, integrity, and accuracy. The 3D surface model established by introducing the alpha shape algorithm calculates the volume, and the validation experiments on three soil mound models and one field experiment on LEDs with a minimum average error of only 1.69% fully validate the effectiveness and accuracy of the method. The encouraging results show that effective volume calculation can be performed on realistic LEDs using the proposed method.

The Effects of Strong Earthquakes on Built Heritage: A Preliminary Case Study of Rector’s Palace in Dubrovnik’s Old City

“…In order to ensure the preservation of the most vulnerable parts of the building and to collect information about the irregular geometry of the atrium and arcades, 3D laser scanning was performed with a Leica BLK terrestrial scanner (see Figure 22) [76]. The distribution of principal compressive stresses, σ 2 (MPa) in Figure 18a,b confirms the regions of critical exposure to earthquakes (achieving the highest permissible values, i.e., f = 8 MPa) at observed limit states as seen in Figure 17a,b, namely, atrium at T NCR = 95 (a g /g = 0.16) and arcades at T NCR = 225 (a g /g = 0.21), also indicating the possibility of compressive crushing of stone columns and masonry walls.…”

“…In order to ensure the preservation of the most vulnerable parts of the building and to collect information about the irregular geometry of the atrium and arcades, 3D laser scanning was performed with a Leica BLK terrestrial scanner (see Figure 22) [76].…”

LiDAR-Based Morphometry of Dolines in Aggtelek Karst (Hungary) and Slovak Karst (Slovakia)

“…In fact, the volume calculation can be carried out using raster DTMs, or more directly using a point cloud. For small-scale landforms, either natural or artificial, terrestrial laser scanning or close-range photogrammetry can provide valuable input in order to quickly and precisely calculate the volume [42][43][44]. Volume calculations generally require the definition of upper and lower surfaces, or, in the study of dynamic landforms (e.g., volcanoes, sand dunes, landslides), the surface before and after a given period or event [45][46][47][48][49].…”