Bibliography: p.187-193. / The maintenance and expansion of piping systems of petro-chemical plants is a complex and costly process. These costs can be reduced by knowledge of the as-built dimensions and layout of the piping system. As-built Computer Aided Design (CAD) models of such piping systems, specifically the use of Plant Design System (PDS) software packages, allow for more efficient planning than paper plans. Conventional surveying and analogue photogrammetry have been methods that have traditionally been used to capture the necessary CAD information. More recently, the Department of Geomatics at the University of Cape Town has produced software which replicates the analogue photogrammetric approach using digital images (Cammidge, 1996). The objective of this thesis is to develop a pipe measurement technique which can supplement those currently being used and overcome some of their shortcomings. A further objective is to present an overview of the pipe measurement techniques, photogrammetric principles, image processing techniques and programming considerations which would be required to develop a robust, fully functional, pipe measurement software package integrated with a PDS. The author hopes that this thesis will form the foundation for the development of such a software package for local and possibly international industry. A digital photogrammetric technique related to line photogrammetry is developed. This technique makes use of lines in an image which represent the silhouette edges of the cylinder. The use of photogrammetry based on lines avoids some of the shortcomings of conventional point-based photogrammetry. It is not necessary to identify conjugate points in images, nor is it even necessary for overlapping images of the cylinder to be captured. Furthermore, this thesis reports on a number of tests designed to gauge the developed techniques' accuracy and suitability for use in pipe metrology in an industrial plant. The techniques were found to be capable of achieving results which deviated by, on average, 2-3mm in object position and 0.1° in direction from the likely true values of the cylinder axis. The radius could be determined to better than 1 mm. The techniques developed here proved to be suitably accurate for the purpose of determining the parameters of pipes in industrial plants. However, certain factors may reduce the accuracy and these are also discussed. This thesis concludes that a novel digital photogrammetric technique for measuring pipes in an industrial plant was successfully developed. Recommendations are made as to how the technique might be improved to allow sub-millimetre accuracies to be obtained. Finally, a recommendation is made that the information contained within the thesis be used as the basis for designing a digital photogrammetric measurement module to be linked to a PDS.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:uct/oai:localhost:11427/17545 |
| Date | January 1998 |
| Creators | Dingle, Malcolm Robert |
| Contributors | Rüther, Heinz |
| Publisher | University of Cape Town, Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment, School of Architecture, Planning and Geomatics |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Doctoral Thesis, Doctoral, PhD |
| Format | application/pdf |
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