PSI - Issue 64

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Yago Cruz et al. / Procedia Structural Integrity 64 (2024) 335–342 Yago Cruz / Structural Integrity Procedia 00 (2019) 000 – 000

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Many of these ancient constructions are still active today, and those that no longer have the use for which they were intended maintain their relevance as an integral part of the cultural heritage of Humanity. To ensure that these structures are preserved in the best possible condition over the years requires proper control and maintenance. Erosion, corrosion, human action, or exposure to loads for which they were not originally designed makes maintenance and monitoring very important. In recent years, Building Information Modeling (BIM) has been a technological breakthrough to facilitate the maintenance of these structures. A BIM model enables the integration of all types of information in a 3D graphic design environment. This technology also makes it possible to include a highly detailed architectural model and a structural model in the same environment. On the one hand, the architectural model provides detailed information on geometry, material composition, structural configuration, as well as various data necessary for structural health monitoring. On the other hand, the structural model is a 3D representation of the structural components of the building, which is used for structural calculations and evaluations. The BIM methodology also allows a study of efficiency, environmental sustainability and costs, as in (Pereiro et al., 2023), where they compare economically and environmentally the structures made using removable and reconfigurable joints against welded structures using the BIM model. The BIM methodology has also been applied in recent years to cultural heritage buildings, such as aqueducts (Conti et al., 2022), old wooden buildings (Mol et al., 2020; Santos et al., 2023), bridges (Bouzas et al., 2022) or archaeological buildings (Banfi, 2020; Biancardo et al., 2023) giving rise to Heritage Building Information Modelling (HBIM). In (Liu et al., 2023), it is recognized that there is a significant lack of knowledge regarding the potential uses of HBIM for historic building operations and preservation. It also discusses the potential advantages and benefits of further improvement in the implementation of this technique. In (Bouzas et al., 2022) a study is made during different years of a historic metal structure where a complete study of the life cycle of the building is made, generating an interconnected database that in this case is the HBIM model. To create a 3D HBIM model, the first step is to internally and externally characterize the structures. Currently, there are several means to obtain the geometric dimensions of a structure, such as photogrammetry techniques, taking manual measurements on the structure, or Terrestrial Laser Scanning (TLS). The latter being one of the most widely used for the realization of projects in the BIM environment (Saptari et al., 2019). This technique consists of capturing three-dimensional data using a laser scanner to measure the distance between the scanner and the surrounding objects. In recent years, new instruments are being integrated to get more information about the models, such as Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) and thermal camera. GPR is a non-invasive method that uses high frequency electromagnetic waves to detect and map subsurface features in the ground. (Coli et al., 2022) applied GPR technology to analyze the walls of the Basilica of Santa Croce in Florence. The thermal camera, also a Non Destructive Technique (NDT), captures the infrared radiation emitted by all objects with a temperature above absolute zero. In recent years it is being progressively introduced in construction-related work. A good example of this can be seen in (Abdelhafiz et al., 2022), where the quality of the thermal insulation of a building is studied thanks to the images captured with the thermal camera. The most common is to combine several of the above techniques to achieve an accurate geometrical characterization (Costantino et al., 2023). Another advantage of the BIM/HBIM methodology is the possibility of linking the geometric models with other software of the same company and interconnecting them so that the information flow is bidirectional. However, it is possible to export the structural model to practically any structural analysis or finite element calculation software to study the structural behavior of the building. With the structural model, the detailed information of the structural elements of the building is captured.