Scaling new heights with Artec 3D scanning: Inspecting a 25-foot tall floodwall

GoMeasure3D’s Ray II 3D scanner near the floodwall in Richmond, Virginia. Image courtesy of GoMeasure3D

On June 19, 1972, something happened that would ultimately change Richmond’s waterfront forever. When Hurricane Agnes began to batter the US coast, the nearby James River broke its banks, triggering flooding in townships, on highways, and along railway lines across the city.

In Virginia alone, this caused $14.8 million of road damage (or $110 million in today’s money) with housing, sewage systems, and other infrastructure also needing repair. Four people also lost their lives after their car was swept away by the floods. Yet, it was only when this was compounded by another major flood in 1985 that local authorities finally changed tack, introducing new preventative measures.

Work soon began on a massive floodwall, covering both the north and south banks of the James River. Ten years later, it was finished, and despite the Blizzard of 1996 causing the river to rise to a height of 22 feet, the barrier stood tall – and it has done so ever since.

That said, the area remains at severe risk, and the wall itself has never been deployed in full. So, how can we know for sure that it remains a steadfast defender of Richmond, an industrial city of 230,000 people, packed with irreplaceable historic colonial-era architecture?

Enter Artec 3D Gold-certified partner GoMeasure3D. Having just got their hands on a new Artec Ray II 3D scanner, the team put it straight to the test, pairing it with the wireless Artec Leo to rapidly pick up all the data required for precision inspection.

Ray II: “A leap forward” in 3D scanning

GoMeasure3D’s ambitious 3D scanning venture began with Application Engineer (and Richmond local) Art Pekun heading to site with Ray II in hand. However, as excited as he was to test the new LiDAR device in the field, the scale of the challenge he was undertaking quickly became clear.

GoMeasured3D’s Richmond floodwall scan data. Image courtesy of GoMeasure3D

Before he even got off the sidewalk, Art identified the bridge overlooking the barrier and footfall on the streets around it as potential causes of GPS tracking disruption and motion blur. Then, there was sheer size. Not many devices offer the real-time feedback, range, and battery life needed to capture such a huge flood barrier from multiple angles in one session.

But once he’d mounted Ray II to its lightweight tripod, Art quickly realized why it’s such a valuable addition to the Artec 3D scanning range. With a built-in display and target-free tracking, setup takes seconds, while the device’s visual inertial system (VIS) ensures that it always ‘knows where it is.’

In this case, its VIS made it quick and easy to digitize the barrier from nine different angles and capture any signs of damage, with alignment points being created on the move. According to GoMeasure3D COO Paul Motley, Ray II unlocked a 20-minute, ultra-accurate data capture process that wasn’t just impressive, it simply wouldn’t have been possible before.

Ray II’s built-in display indicating that a complete 3D scan is only seconds away. Image courtesy of GoMeasure3D

“Before Ray II, we probably wouldn’t have even attempted this because all these challenges would’ve existed but been exponentially more difficult,” Paul explained. “Without alignment tracking, how are you going to merge data? Just the simple idea of going from one side of the floodwall to the other would’ve been very difficult.”

“In the past, we probably wouldn’t have even remotely considered attempting this. But with all its advanced features, Ray II is just so much of a leap forward.”

When it came to inspecting the floodwall’s doors, which included more intricate areas with clear signs of rust, Art deployed Artec Leo. While ‘loop’ scans can be tricky to match up at either end, he found the device’s texture tracking to be so advanced, this simply wasn’t an issue.

By merging this high-accuracy Leo scan with Ray II data, Art says it’s possible to achieve multi-resolution meshes that capture the tiniest features for in-depth analysis. In cases where you need to assess the sealing properties of doors, for instance, this could be the difference between telling whether a wall will be effective or leak – making detailed data a necessity.

A flood barrier door undergoing initial analysis in Artec Studio. Image courtesy of GoMeasure3D

“Ray II is great for getting positions and measurements, but Leo lets you inspect closer and achieve a more detailed frame of reference,” Art said. “Everyone wishes one scanner could do it all. That doesn’t exist, but the way Artec Studio lets you combine data with Smart Fusion is something I’ve never seen any other software do.”

Inspecting the Richmond floodwall

When it came to Artec Studio data processing, the team began by triangulating their data and using the program’s single-click global registration algorithm to align all their scans. To simplify and reduce the size of their mesh, they then removed any unneeded frames before dividing it into three layers: the bridges, the street, and the wall itself.

Once optimized, this mesh was analyzed with Artec Studio’s quality inspection toolset. Distance mapping made it possible to find deviations by comparing features, while fitting planes proved ideal for measuring flatness and analyzing whether surfaces could close to form a seal.

The complete floodwall 3D scan in Artec Studio. Image courtesy of GoMeasure3D

For deeper inspection, they later sent it to Geomagic Design X, a reverse engineering software packed with tools for creating feature-based CAD models from scan data. Paul says they quickly found its segmenting tools to be particularly useful, as they “take complex parts and reduce them to fundamental shapes” in a way that “greatly increases time savings.”

From there, it was possible to turn all these shapes into usable CAD objects by exporting to SOLIDWORKS with Design X SOLIDWORKS LiveTransfer. This not only transferred all their work, but kept all the parametric relationships, ensuring it stayed true to the original data.

Having broken down this mesh into catch structures that could be built on or examined in greater detail, they sent it to Geomagic Control X. There, deviation analysis features like organic surface-fitting allowed the GoMeasure3D team to rapidly identify deformations that constituted potential issues before analyzing depth, volume, and material loss.

“With concrete structures, it’s not like you can see if it exactly matches the CAD drawing. We're looking for erosion, pitting, deformation – physical damage,” added Paul. “Organic surface-fitting, which is fairly unique to Control X, gives you the ability to find the volume of defects and use this as a frame of reference for seeing how structurally sound things are.”

“Once you identify defect locations, you can see whether you’ve got a cluster around one particular area, and if needed, say: ‘We need to go and do a repair.’”

Richmond flood barrier deviation analysis being carried out in Geomagic Control X. Image courtesy of GoMeasure3D

An “extremely easy” workflow to adopt

GoMeasure3D’s scan-to-inspection workflow may take a few steps, but with intuitive alignment and scan-to-CAD tools (plus a little practice), Paul says it can become “extremely easy.”

For what it’s worth, he and his colleagues didn’t end up finding alarming flood barrier deviations, but they did demonstrate how it could be used elsewhere. In fact, their workflow is thought to be ideal for capturing accurate, detailed data for inspection, quality control, and maintenance in a range of other applications including industrial manufacturing, mining, and aerospace.

“With this workflow, you don’t need CAD data, so it correlates with a lot of other civil engineering applications,” Paul concluded. “You see a lot of demand for this around nuclear and other areas where you need to check the integrity of concrete structures and monitor them over time. So there’s a huge market for these seemingly simple but actually quite complex inspections.”

“Some want 10 to 20-micron accuracy, others may not care if it’s less than an inch, but the same principles go for inspecting anything from turbine blades to floodwalls.”

Ultimately, Art says the project demonstrates the “remarkable capabilities” of modern scanning as a tool for boosting maintenance safety and efficiency. In addition to underscoring the importance of the technology in maintaining Richmond’s floodwall, he notes that the project highlights its potential as a tool with applications across multiple industries.