• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.33 no.6
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• pp.449-463
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• 2024

Automated crack detection is crucial for structural health monitoring and post-earthquake rapid damage detection. However, realizing high precision automatic crack detection in the absence of corresponding manual labeling presents a formidable challenge. This paper presents a novel crack segmentation transfer learning method and a novel crack segmentation model called Swin-CrackFormer. The proposed method facilitates efficient crack image style transfer through a meticulously designed data preprocessing technique, followed by the utilization of a GAN model for image style transfer. Moreover, the proposed Swin-CrackFormer combines the advantages of Transformer and convolution operations to achieve effective local and global feature extraction. To verify the effectiveness of the proposed method, this study validates the proposed method on three unlabeled crack datasets and evaluates the Swin-CrackFormer model on the METU dataset. Experimental results demonstrate that the crack transfer learning method significantly improves the crack segmentation performance on unlabeled crack datasets. Moreover, the Swin-CrackFormer model achieved the best detection result on the METU dataset, surpassing existing crack segmentation models.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.32 no.6
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• pp.615-623
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• 2023

Crack detection is an essential method to ensure the safety of dam concrete structures. Low-quality crack images of dam concrete structures limit the application of neural network methods in crack detection. This research proposes a modified attentional mechanism model to reduce the disturbance caused by uneven light, shadow, and water spots in crack images. Also, the focal loss function solves the small ratio of crack information. The dataset collects from the network, laboratory and actual inspection dataset of dam concrete structures. This research proposes a novel method for crack detection of dam concrete structures based on the U-Net neural network, namely AF-UNet. A mutual comparison of OTSU, Canny, region growing, DeepLab V3+, SegFormer, U-Net, and AF-UNet (proposed) verified the detection accuracy. A binocular camera detects cracks in the experimental scene. The smallest measurement width of the system is 0.27 mm. The potential goal is to achieve real-time detection and localization of cracks in dam concrete structures.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.141-151
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• 2022

In recent years, the industry and research communities have focused on developing autonomous crack inspection approaches, which mainly include image acquisition and crack detection. In these approaches, mobile devices such as cameras, drones or smartphones are utilized as sensing platforms to acquire structural images, and the deep learning (DL)-based methods are being developed as important crack detection approaches. However, the process of image acquisition and collection is time-consuming, which delays the inspection. Also, the present mobile devices such as smartphones can be not only a sensing platform but also a computing platform that can be embedded with deep neural networks (DNNs) to conduct on-site crack detection. Due to the limited computing resources of mobile devices, the size of the DNNs should be reduced to improve the computational efficiency. In this study, an architecture called pruned crack recognition network (PCR-Net) was developed for the detection of structural cracks. A dataset containing 11000 images was established based on the raw images from bridge inspections. A pruning method was introduced to reduce the size of the base architecture for the optimization of the model size. Comparative studies were conducted with image processing techniques (IPTs) and other DNNs for the evaluation of the performance of the proposed PCR-Net. Furthermore, a modularly designed framework that integrated the PCR-Net was developed to realize a DL-based crack detection application for smartphones. Finally, on-site crack detection experiments were carried out to validate the performance of the developed system of smartphone-based detection of structural cracks.

• Proceedings of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute Conference
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• 1998.04a
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• pp.309-316
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• 1998

In this paper, a newly derived formulation of a crack detection model is presented and its feasibility to detect cracks in structures is verified experimentally. To meet this objective, the followig approach is utilized. Firstly, the crack detection scheme which consists of the damage localization model and the crack detection model is formulated. Secondly, the feasibility and practicality of the complete procedure of the crack detection model is evaluated by locating and sizing cracks in clamped-clamped beams for which a f3w modal parameters were measured for sixteen uncracked and cracked states. Major results observed from the crack detection exercises include that far most damage cases, the predicted crack locations falls within very close to the inflicted locations of cracks in the test beam and the size of crack values estimated at the predicted locations are very close to the inflicted magnitudes.

• Journal of Korea Society of Digital Industry and Information Management
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.17-22
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• 2013

In this paper, we propose a concrete crack detection method using shape properties. It is based on morphology algorithm and crack features. We assume that an input image is contaminated by various noises. Thus, we use a morphology operator and extract patterns of crack. It segments cracks and background using opening and closing operations. Morphology based segmentation is better than existing integration methods using subtraction in detecting a crack it has small width. Also, it is robust to noisy environment. The proposed algorithm classifies the segmented image into crack and background using shape properties of crack. This method calculates values of properties such as the number of pixels and the maximum length of the segmented region. Also, pixel counts of clusters are considered. We decide whether the segmented region belongs to cracks according to those data. Experimental results show that our proposed crack detection method has better results than those by existing detection methods.

• Journal of Korea Society of Digital Industry and Information Management
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.13-20
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• 2013

In this paper, we propose a multi-scale crack detection method. This method uses decomposition, composition, and shape properties. It is based on morphology algorithm, crack features. We use a morphology operator which extracts patterns of crack. It segments cracks and background using opening and closing operations. Morphology based segmentation is better than existing integration methods using subtraction in detecting a crack it has small width. However, morphology methods using only one structure element could detect only fixed width crack. Thus, we use decomposition and composition methods. We use a decimation method for decomposition. After decomposition and morphology operation, we get edge images given by binary values. Our method calculates values of properties such as the number of pixels and the maximum length of the segmented region. We decide whether the segmented region belongs to cracks according to those data. Experimental results show that our proposed multi-scale crack detection method has better results than those of existing detection methods.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.39 no.4
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• pp.371-393
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• 2023

Crack detection in structures plays a vital role in ensuring their safety, durability, and reliability. Traditional crack detection methods sometimes need significant manual inspections, which are laborious, expensive, and prone to error by humans. Deep learning algorithms, which can learn intricate features from large-scale datasets, have emerged as a viable option for automated crack detection recently. This study presents an in-depth review of crack detection methods used till now, like image processing, traditional machine learning, and deep learning methods. Specifically, it will provide a comparative analysis of crack detection methods using deep learning, aiming to provide insights into the advancements, challenges, and future directions in this field. To facilitate comparative analysis, this study surveys publicly available crack detection datasets and benchmarks commonly used in deep learning research. Evaluation metrics employed to check the performance of different models are discussed, with emphasis on accuracy, precision, recall, and F1-score. Moreover, this study provides an in-depth analysis of recent studies and highlights key findings, including state-of-the-art techniques, novel architectures, and innovative approaches to address the shortcomings of the existing methods. Finally, this study provides a summary of the key insights gained from the comparative analysis, highlighting the potential of deep learning in revolutionizing methodologies for crack detection. The findings of this research will serve as a valuable resource for researchers in the field, aiding them in selecting appropriate methods for crack detection and inspiring further advancements in this domain.

• Proceedings of the Korea Concrete Institute Conference
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• 2000.04a
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• pp.896-902
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• 2000

Crack detection technique for concrete structures has been developed in this study,. The technique utilizes OTDR(Optical Time Domain Reflectometer) method that is widely used in the field of optical engineering. At present, some techniques, such as the naked eye inspection, inspection by crack gauge, ultra sonic detection and os on, are used for crack detection. However, these are not economical and are often time-consuming works. This method employs a common optical fiber as a means of crack detection. Th optical fiber is fully attached to concrete surface, and a crack on concrete could be detected to synchronize with the crack on optical fiber. The experimental verification was performed for concrete beams and the intial crack on the beam was detected under cracking force.

• The Journal of Society for e-Business Studies
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.93-106
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• 2021

Many recent studies on deep learning-based road crack detection have shown significantly more improved performances than previous works using algorithm-based conventional approaches. However, many deep learning-based studies are still focused on classifying the types of cracks. The classification of crack types is highly anticipated in that it can improve the crack detection process, which is currently relying on manual intervention. However, it is essential to calculate the severity of the cracks as well as identifying the type of cracks in actual pavement maintenance planning, but studies related to road crack detection have not progressed enough to automated calculation of the severity of cracks. In order to calculate the severity of the crack, the type of crack and the area of the crack in the image must be identified together. This study deals with a method of using Mobilenet-SSD that is deep learning-based object detection techniques to effectively automate the simultaneous detection of crack types and crack areas. To improve the accuracy of object-detection for road cracks, several experiments were conducted to combine the U-Net for automatic segmentation of input image and object-detection model, and the results were summarized. As a result, image masking with U-Net is able to maximize object-detection performance with 0.9315 mAP value. While referring the results of this study, it is expected that the automation of the crack detection functionality on pave management system can be further enhanced.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Computer Information Conference
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• 2021.07a
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• pp.645-647
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• 2021

본 논문에서는 목조건물의 Crack만을 움직여 Data set을 증강하는 기법을 제안한다. 이 기법은 이미지 내 Crack Detection의 학습 데이터를 만들기 위해 이미지의 전체적인 값으로 Flip, Rotation, Shift, Rescale 등의 변환을 통해 Data Augmentation을 진행하는 대신 Crack이라는 하나의 Object만을 가지고 새로운 데이터를 생성한다. 이때 Object는 관심 영역 내에서만 연산되어 기존의 방법보다 더욱 많은 데이터를 얻을 수 있으며, Crack이 관심 영역 밖으로 이동하지 않기 때문에 이상치 혹은 결측치가 존재하지 않는 데이터를 얻을 수 있다. 또한 Crack이 존재하지 않는 이미지에도 임의적으로 Crack을 생성하여 새로운 데이터를 만들 수 있다. 결론적으로 본 논문에서는 Crack Detection의 학습을 위하여 기존 방법보다 우수한 성능의 Data Augmentation을 제안하였다.