Abstract
As fundamental load-bearing parts, the cylindrical steel structures of transmission towers relate to the stability of the main structures in terms of topological relation and performance. Therefore, the periodic monitoring of a cylindrical steel structure is necessary to maintain the safety and stability of existing structures in energy transmission. Most studies on deformation analysis are still focused on the process of identifying discrepancies in the state of a structure by observing it at different times, yet relative deformation analysis based on the data acquired in single time has not been investigated effectively. In this study, the piecewise cylinder fitting method is presented to fit the point clouds collected at a single time to compute the relative inclination of a cylindrical steel structure. The standard deviation is adopted as a measure to evaluate the degree of structure deformation. Meanwhile, the inclination rate of each section is compared with the conventional method on the basis of the piecewise cylinder fitting parameters. The validity and accuracy of the algorithm are verified by real transmission tower point cloud data. Experimental results show that the piecewise cylinder fitting algorithm proposed in this research can meet the accuracy requirements of cylindrical steel structure deformation analysis and has high application value in the field of structure deformation monitoring.
Highlights
This paper presents a method for cylindrical steel structure monitoring based on point clouds collected by terrestrial laser scanning (TLS), which advances the application of laser scanning for the monitoring of specific structural safety and stability
This study provides an effective approach to fitting the cylinder model for A-shaped specific steel structures from dense point clouds collected by TLS
The method for the deformation monitoring of a cylindrical steel structure is presented on the basis of the dense point clouds collected by TLS
Summary
Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Similar to the method of global positioning system-based distortion monitoring, the number of the sensors deployed in site affects the accuracy of the result; the more the locations of the sensors fixed in the structures, the more accurate the results reached in the process to express the main deflection of the structures In this kind of application, the reliability and stability of the predicted safety status completely rely on the number and location of strain sensors. Non-contact techniques for built-up structure survey have significantly developed in recent years, allowing the position data collection, the image acquisition, and the 3D modeling of the entire structure and structural parts with integrated methods of high reliability and accuracy [8]. This paper presents a method for cylindrical steel structure monitoring based on point clouds collected by TLS, which advances the application of laser scanning for the monitoring of specific structural safety and stability.
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