ITcon Vol. 15, pg. 64-74, http://www.itcon.org/2010/4

Measuring the bowing of marble panels in building facades using terrestrial laser scanning technology

submitted:March 2009
revised:September 2009
published:January 2010
editor(s):Björk B-C
authors:Fahim Al-Neshawy, Lic.Sc. (Tech.),
Jukka Piironen, M.Sc. (Tech.),
Susanna Peltola, M.Sc. (Tech.),
Department of Structural Engineering and Building Technology, Helsinki University of Technology, Finland;
firstname.lastname@tkk.fi

Anna Erving, M.Sc. (Tech.),
Nina Heiska, MA (Archaeology),
Milka Nuikka, M.Sc. (Tech.),
Institute of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing, Helsinki University of Technology, Finland;
firstname.lastname@tkk.fi

Jari Puttonen, Professor of Structural Engineering and Building Technology, Helsinki University of Technology, Finland;
firstname.lastname@tkk.fi
summary:Natural stones are widely used as building facade materials. Numerous cases of damage indicate that their deterioration depends mainly on ambient climate. The marble claddings in some cases are known to bow, expand and lose their strength when exposed to weathering. Depending on the bowing, panels may show cracks mostly initiated at the dowels. The percentage of visible cracks and breakouts increases with the amplitude of bowing. The objective of this paper is to find a potential use for the terrestrial laser scanning technique in detecting the deterioration of the building facades and in measuring quantitatively the dimensions of the damaged areas. This paper focuses on detecting the bowing of marble cladding of building facades. Field measurements were carried out using a terrestrial laser scanner. The measurements of the bowing of the marble panels were also carried out manually with a so-called “bow–meter”. The results show that the terrestrial laser scanning technique gives an accurate and reasonable method for measuring the bowing of marble panels of the building facades. The terrestrial laser scanning is not a replacement for existing condition survey techniques, but an additional method. The terrestrial laser scanning can be employed to complete many surveying tasks on large surfaces because of the spatial coverage of the point cloud, and the non-touching measurement principle.
keywords:Laser scanning, Deterioration, Inspection, Marble panels, Building Facades
full text: (PDF file, 1.378 MB)
citation:Al-Neshawy F, Piironen J, Peltola S, Erving A, Heiska N, Nuikka M, Puttonen J (2010). Measuring the bowing of marble panels in building facades using terrestrial laser scanning technology, ITcon Vol. 15, pg. 64-74, https://www.itcon.org/2010/4