Abstract
Recently, interest in ground subsidence in urban areas has increased after a large sinkhole occurred near the high-story building area in Jamsil, Seoul, Korea, in 2014. If a massive sinkhole occurs in an urban area, it is crucial to assess its risk rapidly. Access to humans for on-site safety diagnosis may be difficult because of the additional risk of collapse in the disaster area. Generally, inspection using drones equipped with high-speed lidar sensors can be utilized. However, if the sinkhole is created vertically to a depth of 100 m, similar to the sinkhole in Guatemala, the drone cannot be applied because of the wireless communication limit and turbulence inside the sinkhole. In this study, a three-dimensional (3D) scanning system was fabricated and operated using a towed cable in a massive vertical sinkhole to a depth of 200 m. A high-speed lidar sensor was used to obtain a continuous cross-sectional shape at a certain depth. An inertial-measuring unit was applied to compensate for the error owing to the rotation and pendulum movement of the measuring unit. A reconstruction algorithm, including the compensation scheme, was developed. In a vertical hole with a depth of 180 m in the mining area, the fabricated system was applied to scan 0-165 m depth. The reconstructed shape was depicted in a 3D graph.