An advanced laboratorial measurement technique of scour topography based on the fusion method for 3D reconstruction

Abstract

Local scour is a phenomenon that occurs around water-blocking structures such as bridge piers, pile foundations, and pipelines, which threatens seriously the safety of structures. The laboratory test based on wave and flow tanks is an effective way investigating the local scour around piles. The measurement of scour depth and topography is an important basis for this type of experimental analysis, which can help the researchers to perform a quantitative analysis on the scour mechanism. The conventional measurement methods in scouring experiments have limitations in terms of operational efficiency, measurement range, and cost. Therefore, an advanced experimental measurement technique based on the RGB-D sensor and the 3D reconstruction algorithm was proposed in this work to provide the full topography information around target zone after scour. Experiments applying this 3D reconstruction method were conducted for the practical scour tests. The impact of water on the application of this technique was discussed as well. The results showed that the new technique has good accuracy in scour topography description and scour depth measurement. This work provides a new measure technique for laboratory scour tests. The proposed method has a broad application prospect in measurements for such experimental scenes.