Elevates consulting services were requested by the Client to assist with the analysis of three, recently constructed, tilt-wall constructed warehouses. The building owners has noticed deflection and and cracking of the building walls and hired our Client to investigate the extent of the issue. Our Client conducted terrestrial LiDAR imaging of the exteriors and interiors of the building and provided the data to Elevate for analysis.
Elevate conducted spatial analysis of the building walls using a cloud-to-mesh calculation of the distance between the points that represent the exterior building walls and a vertical plane orientated to the wall as designed by the architect. Individual “heat map” were produced for each exterior building wall to quantify the variation from vertical. Deflection of the walls in excess of the owner’s specifications were noted and reported to the Client. In addition, a cloud-to-cloud analysis of the points that represent the exterior walls and the points that represent the interior walls was conducted to map any variations in wall thickness that could account for the exterior variations noted.
Further, while not part of the intial scope of work, the owner had asked the Client about potential interior slab deflections near the walls of the buildings. Though the interior walls were the focus of the investigation, terrestrial LiDAR captures all data within its’ hemispherical field of view, and data from the slab in this area was available to Elevate for analysis. Spatial analysis of the slab showed that variations were within owner-specified conditions at the time of the scan.
Cloud to mesh variation of a section of a tilt-wall building. The walls have been classified to show variation from a vertical plane oriented to the Client’s specifications. The upper image shows the exterior walls as well as the data from the remainder of the site (interior of the building, exterior of the site) disseminated to provide context.
Interior and exterior wall of a tilt-wall building, classified by variation from vertical planes specified by the Client. This shows the correlation between the direction of variation between the walls indicating deflection and not variation in wall thickness.
Using this information the Client was able to consult with the owner and recommend steps for mitigation and further investigation. As part of this further investigation the Client re-imaged the exterior walls of the buildings with terrestrial LiDAR. The Client provided this data to Elevate and we conducted a “temporal analysis” to show the effects of the recommended mitigation efforts and any potential deflection rebound. Using cloud-to-cloud analysis of the two data sets Elevate as able to show that rebound within the owner’s specified conditions had not occurred and the walls likely had been permanently distressed.
This project demonstrates the benefit of using LiDAR imaging to evaluate and manage tilt-wall construction projects. While a single data set can provide the quantification of deflection across and entire wall temporal analysis can be used to monitor mitigation efforts or the general performance of the structure over time. Complete image of the site has the additional benefit of creating a record of the site that can be used of other analytical efforts and investigations outside the original scope of work. Outside the immediate structure, spatial data can be used to determine drainage patterns surrounding the asset and potential for hazards such as local flooding and ponding. Using machine learning software Elevate can locate, highlight and quantify distress such as cracks, spalls and repair patches.