Tunnels are an essential part of well-functioning transport infrastructure, be it for cars, trains, subways, bicycles, or on foot. Especially in Austria, as the "land of mountains," a traffic network would hardly be imaginable without the more than 160 road tunnels and more than 400 railroad tunnels that already exist: long detours around mountain ranges or countless serpentines would be necessary to get from Salzburg to Carinthia, for example, or especially to the sea at vacation times. In addition, constructions such as bypass tunnels are important measures to reduce traffic congestion and environmental pollution.
From the first moment on, safety is the decisive factor for every tunnel project. Innovative visualization methods offer many possibilities to assist people from the initial planning stage through tunnel construction to monitoring the condition of the tunnel in operation. As a best practice example, VRVis and Geodata have developed a virtual reality system: The "Geotunnel VR Viewer" enables an immersive, visual analysis of various measurement and sensor data in a virtual 3D environment. For this, tunnel models created from planning data or reconstructions of existing tunnels based on laser scans or photogrammetry are used for a realistic representation of the construction progress as well as all measurements in a spatially and temporally easily understandable way. "Together with the visualization expert VRVis, we are taking a major step from looking at data to experiencing it, which means that measurement data - their progressions, underlying processes, and interrelationships - can be presented in a new and more comprehensible way," explains Klaus Chmelina from Geodata.
When you're constructing something as complex as a tunnel, you have to keep an eye on a lot of things at the same time. Is the drilling working? Is the construction progress going well? Is the tunnel wall stable? The Geotunnel VR Viewer answers many questions by providing holistic 3D monitoring in which geometry, as well as all measurements and sensors, are correctly georeferenced. "We thus create a very low-threshold way for tunnel construction experts to compare a wide variety of sensor data at one location in a 3D setting and to accompany construction processes down to the smallest detail realistically," explains Christoph Traxler of VRVis, describing the basic concept of the Geotunnel 3D Viewer. In addition, animations show the development of measured values over time. With the help of VR glasses, users can move intuitively through the tunnel – "as if they were on-site" – and understand its true dimensions while simultaneously controlling the speed and temporal direction of the animations. In the case of critical values, the system also supports automatic navigation to the event's location, allowing a quick and accurate inspection and analysis of the criticality.
One of the reasons why the Geotunnel VR Viewer works so well in practical use lies in the successful research collaboration between Geodata, the Styrian specialist for geotechnical measurements in tunneling, and the visual computing research center VRVis. "VRVis' research know-how combined with our practical experience enables us to explore new forms and possibilities of visualization and analysis of measurement data, which significantly contribute to the economic efficiency and safety of tunnel construction," says Geodata's R&D expert Klaus Chmelina. For Christoph Traxler, head of the project at VRVis, the Geotunnel VR Viewer stands out as a prime example of how visual computing opens up new ways of communicating with complex data: "Together with Geodata, our 3D monitoring, which has been specially developed for tunnel construction and is possible both with VR glasses and on the screen, creates a sound basis for making decisions and taking more effective measures in tunnel construction – and for having a digitally supported view of all important aspects." This is an invaluable contribution to tunnel safety in Austria - as well as for your next vacation!
Vienna, July 5, 2022
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