Investigation of 3D terrestrial laser scanning techniques for potential application to rock mechanics

摘要

3D terrestrial laser scanning techniques become now popular to be applied to other fields like architecture, industry, infrastructure and forensic for 3D digital documentation, surveying and design. These techniques also show the potential in rock mechanics for site characterization, documentation, improving input data for numerical modeling and design. This paper presents the state-of-the-art development of these techniques and the advantages comparing to traditional methods for different applications related to rock mechanics concerns. Based upon the investigation of ISRM-Swedish national task during 2008-2010, 3D laser scanning has been tested in some projects for different applications, including fracture mapping, detecting water leakage from laser image, monitoring deformation of rock mass, numerical modeling with 3D as-built data. The presented results show the potential for site mapping by laser scanning with high scanning speed for acquisition of 3D digital data with high accuracy and resolution up to millimeter levels, and discover the potential solutions to rock mechanics requests in some ways from site investigation, analysis, numerical modeling and the final design. Limitation of these techniques for application in practice is also discussed for the further development.