Automated Structural Analysis for Historic Building Preservation Using Point Cloud Data and Parametric Design

The maintenance and compliance assessment of historic buildings' structural health plays a crucial role in the conservation and preservation of the built heritage. The conformity inspections of the existing structures are conducted using traditional and manual methods. The latter can be susceptible to error, time-consuming, and labour-intensive, frequently relying on manual checks and measurements. The present paper proposes a work methodology that combines 3D scan technology and parametric design tools. This combination aims to develop an automated point cloud-based script responding to the efficient evaluation and analysis of the construction structural elements. The script is also expected to provide ease of use and reduce the cost and effort associated with structural maintenance. The initial focus of our investigation is on the portal frame selected as the first structural element of analysis, with particular attention given to the phenomenon of lateral displacement as a deformation type. The process mainly consists of the collection of point clouds representing the current state of the supporting element, which are then uploaded to the Grasshopper visual programming language. This results in creating a custom workflow and an automatic algorithm that begins with processing the point clouds and culminates in identifying the deviation and the displacement value. Following application to a 0.5cm displacement prototype, the methodology is validated as highly accurate, suitable for decision-making, and simple to use with an intuitive interface relying principally on point cloud uploading.