Hydro Electricity
Laser Scanning for Reduced Risk
When erosion occurs in dams and reservoirs, it is important to accurately understand the risk posed by that damage. Regular inspections should be conducted to assess the size of defects such as cracks, spalling and erosion to verify that dams and reservoirs are in good condition. Using underwater laser scanning, 3D models that are more accurate than traditional sonar inspections of dams and reservoirs can be obtained in order to reduce inspection uncertainty, and determine if repairs are required, thereby ensuring continued safe operation.
Interior Tubes
Assessing the Current State
- Obtaining accurate information of the deterioration and changes to tubes and jackets is essential to enabling effective project commissioning
- Additionally, understanding of the current state of tubes is important for maintaining the integrity of assets and projecting work necessary across their lifespan
Constraints of Caliper Pigging
- A traditional approach for interior tube inspections is caliper pigging and simple video inspection. However, caliper pigs for large diameter pipes are extremely heavy, which increases deployment complexity and project operating costs
- Also, spacing between each of the caliper pigs’ sensors means that the results will be low resolution and that the production of the final models must rely on data interpolation
Laser Scanning for Precise Results
- 2G Robotics’ laser scanners produce submillimeter resolution 3D models, removing the need for data interpolation by capturing detailed geometry and anomalies that traditional methods would not observe or, at best, poorly define
Pipes and Tunnels
Tunnel Maintenance
- Water tunnels will gradually deteriorate over time, resulting in structural distress. Acquiring comprehensive knowledge of a tunnel’s condition is essential for ensuring reliability and maximizing the service life of the asset
- If tunnel condition assessments are not routinely performed, potential problems that threaten to interrupt power generation or water supply cannot be properly identified
Inspect Without Disrupting Service
- In order to assess the condition and evaluate the reliability of water tunnels, the tunnels often need to be taken out of service. Water tunnels, however, are critical infrastructure and so removing them from service for inspection causes scheduling difficulties, operational inconveniences and unnecessary expenses
- Unlike traditional inspection methods, with underwater laser scanning water tunnels can remain in service during inspection, enabling assessments to be conducted efficiently and effectively at no operational or customer inconvenience
As-Built Conditions
As-Built Construction
- Obtaining accurate as-built information is critical. As-built surveys of new or retrofited underwater installations provide essential information for project commissioning
- As-builts also provide detailed records of assets at the time of survey, which can be used as a baseline for future inspections
Complete Information
- When compared to traditional methods for generating as-built models, underwater laser scanning enables much greater detail with higher resolution, higher accuracy point clouds
- The resulting models are able to show millimeter level discrepancies between the as-built state and the initial design
As-Builts as an Added Benefit
- When underwater laser scanning is employed for a specific measurement, such as metrology, the entire structure can be scanned without adding any time or cost to the project
- This means that a model is generated, even when that was not the initial purpose of the campaign – ultimately providing useful as-built information in addition to the target measurements
