DYNAMIC CONCRETE BEAM DEFORMATION MEASUREMNET WITH 3D RANGE CAMERAS

Abstract. Concrete beams are used to construct bridges and other structures. Due to the traffic overloading or the decaying state of structures, deformation of bridges or other structures occurs frequently. Therefore, the requirement to measure concrete beam deformation, as integral components of structures, is well recognized. Many imaging techniques such as digital cameras, laser scanners and range cameras have been proven to be accurate and cost-effective methods for large-area measurement of deformation under static loading conditions. However, for obtaining useful information about the behaviour of the beams or monitoring real-time bridge deformation, the ability to measurement deformation under dynamic loading conditions is also necessary. This paper presents a relatively low-cost and high accuracy imaging technique to measure the deformation of concrete beams in response to dynamic loading with range cameras. However, due to the range camera measurement principle, target movement could lead to motion artefacts that degrade range measurement accuracy. The results of simulated and real-data investigation into the motion artefacts show that the lower sampling frequency leads to the more significant motion artefact. The results from real data experiments have indicated that periodic deformation can be recovered with sub-millimetre accuracy when the 3 Hz and 4 mm amplitude target motion is sampled at a rate of least 20 Hz and with 31 MHz range camera modulation frequency. When the modulation frequency is 29 MHz, the best sampling frequency is 20 Hz to keep the error under sub-millimetre.