Time and cost analysis of geometric quality assessment of structural columns based on 3D terrestrial laser scanning

Abstract

Terrestrial laser scanning (TLS)-based geometric quality assessment (QA) of construction components has been researched and utilized in recent years, which possesses a great potential to increase the QA accuracy and reduce superfluous labor. However, the quantitative time and cost benefits of TLS technology for geometric QA are not clear. In order to provide the construction industry with an instructive analysis to adopt the TLS technology in geometric QA, an investigation based on a comparative study is conducted to quantitatively research the time and cost effect of TLS-based geometric QA for structural columns. After defining the processes of the conventional and TLS-based approaches, data from a case study are collected and processed in both project and company levels. Through analysis and discussion of the result, it is demonstrated that the TLS-based approaches are more time-efficient and cost-beneficial in the long term. It is also indicated that compared to purchasing a full-ownership TLS, renting TLS or fractional ownership TLS are more economic for geometric QA.