Geometric and structural assessment and reverse engineering of a steel-framed building using 3D laser scanning

In the construction industry, there has been a surge in the implementation of high-tech equipment in recent years. Various technologies are being considered as potential solutions for future construction projects. Building information modeling (BIM), which utilizes advanced equipment, is a promising solution among these technologies. The need for safety inspection has also increased with the aging structures. Nevertheless, traditional safety inspection technology falls short of meeting this demand as it heavily relies on the subjective opinions of workers. This inadequacy highlights the need for advancements in existing maintenance technology. Research on building safety inspection using 3D laser scanners has notably increased. Laser scanners that use light detection and ranging (LiDAR) can quickly and accurately acquire producing information, which can be realized through reverse engineering by modeling point cloud data. This study introduces an innovative evaluation system for building safety using a 3D laser scanner. The system was used to assess the safety of an existing three-story building by implementing a reverse engineering technique. The 3D digital data are obtained from the scanner to detect defects and deflections in and outside the building and to create an as-built BIM. Subsequently, the as-built structural model of the building was generated using the reverse engineering approach and used for structural analysis. The acquired information, including deformations and dimensions, is compared with the expected values to evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed technique.