Modern constructional steelwork is characterized by slim structures and production-optimized designs. Plates are often so slim, that they tend to bulge and bend under stress. The Institute for Construction and Design at the University of Stuttgart conducted large-scale experiments at the Materialprüfanstalt MPA in order to determine how accurate the theoretical description of these processes are.
The examined steel beams are too large for a dense deformation tracking solely by local odometers etc. Therefore, we supported this project by implementing and operating a close range photogrammetric measurement setup and evaluation pipeline.
Four industrial IDS uEye provide the images. The cameras are mounted on individual tripods or installed into an aluminum profile frame with a fixed relative orientation, depending on the measured object. Baselines reach from 15cm to about 1.5m. Cables connect the cameras to a laptop directly via USB and indirectly via a microcontroller relay. We developed custom software for the operator to control the cameras. This configuration allowed reaching a deformation accuracy of ca. 0.1mm.
Norbert Haala
apl. Prof. Dr.-Ing.Deputy Director