A Study on the Development of a 3D Digital Twin Model for the Safety Diagnosis of Natural Heritage

Abstract. The objective of this study was to quantitatively diagnose the structural stability of old-giant-trees by establishing a finite element analysis (FEA) method. This study selected four protected trees in Buyeo-gun, South Korea, in consideration of field applicability, including tree growth conditions and data acquisition environment, and conducted structural diagnosis. The study was conducted in the order of creating a 3D analysis model, setting conditions for FEA, and diagnosing structural stability. The main results of this study are as follows. First, this study established a method for building 3D shapes of crown, trunk, and decay models using 3D scanning and SoT. Second, this study proposed conditions for FEA, including the calculation of tree weight and wind load according to the shape of the tree and parameters of tree properties. Third, the FEA results of a tree with trunk decay revealed that the probability of trunk breakage was not high even under strong winds (70m/s) during typhoons. Nevertheless, this study confirmed that decay would affect the internal stress distribution and safety factor and cause structural vulnerability. The importance of this study is that it proposed an FEA method reflecting the shape of the old-giant-tree and its internal decay. However, future experiments need to address the shortcomings of high parameter values in this study (the highest wind penetration rate in the crown).