High-precision diameter detector and three-dimensional reconstruction method for oil and gas pipelines

This paper considers the shape detection of the oil and gas-transport pipeline. Currently, deformation of long-distance pipelines has become an urgent problem to the security and capacity of oil and gas transmission, imposing new requirements of a diameter detector of high accuracy and three-dimensional reconstruction functionality. In this paper, high-precision diameter detection technology for use in an oil and gas pipeline is first presented to precisely detect deformation of a pipeline. Next, by detecting the shape of the pipe inner wall and analyzing the attitude and position relationship of the diameter-detector and the pipeline, we developed a three-dimensional reconstruction model of the detected pipeline based on coordinate transformation and the least-squares method. Furthermore, based on the proposed diameter detection technology, a prototype “DN800 diameter-detector” is developed for detecting pipeline in both radial and circumferential directions. Finally, an experimental study was performed to verify the availability and accuracy of the detector. The experimental results show that the developed contour detection system of the pipeline is an effective instrument to detect the deformation of oil and gas pipelines.