Integral Layout Optimization of Subsea Production Control System Considering Three-Dimensional Space Constraint

Yin, Yue; Liu, Zhixiang; Zuo, Xin

doi:10.3390/pr9111947

Cited by 7 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 42 publications

(45 reference statements)

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“…In most published studies, the workspaces and the pipes were represented by a single layer of structures. In the work of [18], Yue et al proposed a hierarchical layout of the subsea production control system in the 3D undersea working environment. In their approach, they used a multi-layer star-tree structure to create the layout of the control network.…”

Section: Related Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

Concealed Conduit Routing in Building Slabs

Ueng,

Chang

2023

Applied Sciences

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Concealed pipes are vital facilities for transporting water, air, electricity, and natural gas in modern buildings. These pipes are constructed inside slabs of buildings, and thus conventional piping algorithms, dedicated to arranging exposed pipes in open spaces or on object surfaces, are not suitable for laying out their paths. In this article, an innovative method is presented for designing the concealed conduits of modern buildings. In the proposed piping procedure, the target building is regarded as a framework composed of beams, columns, and slabs. These substructures are encoded in a weighted graph, which serves as the top-level representation of the workspace. Then, these substructures are split into voxels and constitute the bottom-level representation of the workspace. Each concealed pipe is constructed by using a two-stage piping scheme to comply with the representation of the workspace. In the first stage, the slabs containing the terminals of the pipe are located in the top-level representation, and the shortest path connecting these slabs is calculated using Dijkstra’s algorithm. In the second stage, a feasible space is generated by collecting selective voxels in these slabs first. Then, the pipe path is routed inside the feasible space by a shortest-path-finding computation. Next, the pipe surface is generated and represented by using triangle meshes. Finally, the bottom-level representation is modified and the routing process is repeated to lay out the remaining concealed pipes. The experimental results show that the proposed piping procedure efficiently arranges concealed pipes inside buildings of various topologies and internal layouts. As it benefits from the two-level representation and the two-stage routing method, the piping process consumes reasonable computational costs. The paths of the resultant pipes are optimized, and their positions meet the geometrical constraints and safety regulations.

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Section: Related Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

Concealed Conduit Routing in Building Slabs

Ueng,

Chang

2023

Applied Sciences

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“…Piping algorithms can be categorized into two major groups, the automatic methods and the semi-automatic ones [ 1 ]. The former group includes deterministic and heuristic methods [ 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 , 19 ], while the latter is mainly composed of expert systems and immersive virtual reality procedures [ 2 , 18 ]. Deterministic piping procedures always produce the optimum solution when routing a single pipe.…”

Section: Related Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The problem domains of pipe routing vary on a case-by-case basis, and the applications of the pipes are very different [ 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 15 , 18 , 19 ]. Experts’ experiences and domain knowledge are valuable for routing pipes.…”

Section: Related Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Some piping problems are so domain-specific that experts’ knowledge has dominant influences on the topology of the underlying pipes. For example, in [ 19 ], Yue et al propose a pipe-routing algorithm dedicated to subsea production systems. Based on their domain knowledge, they invent special domain representation methods to accommodate the facilities of underwater production systems.…”

Section: Related Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In the second stage, an ACO method is applied to improve the pipe paths. In [ 19 ], a min-max ant colony method is employed to optimize pipe paths even though the underlying topology of the pipe system is domain-specific and has been decided earlier.…”

Section: Related Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

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A Distance-Field-Based Pipe-Routing Method

Ueng

Huang²

2022

Materials

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Pipes are commonly used to transport fuels, air, water, gas, hydraulic power, and other fluid-like materials in engine rooms, houses, factories, airplanes, and ships. Thus, pipe routing is essential in many industrial applications, including ship construction, machinery manufacturing, house building, laying out engine rooms, etc. To be functional, a pipe system should be economical while satisfying spatial constraints and safety regulations. Numerous routing algorithms have been published to optimize the pipe length and the number of elbows. However, relatively few methods have been designed to lay out pipes which strictly meet the spatial constraints and safety regulations. This article proposes a distance-field-based piping algorithm to remedy this problem. The proposed method converts the workspace into a 3D image and computes a distance field upon the workspace first. It then creates a feasible space out of the workspace by peeling the distance field and segmenting the 3D image. The resultant feasible space is collision-free and satisfies the spatial constraints and safety regulations. In the following step, a path-finding process, subjected to a cost function, is triggered to arrange the pipe inside the feasible space. Consequently, the cost of the pipe is optimized, and the pipe path rigidly meets the spatial constraints and safety regulations. The proposed method works effectively even if the workspace is narrow and complicated. In three experiments, the proposed method is employed to lay out pipes inside an underwater vehicle, a machinery room, and a two-story house, respectively. Not only do the resultant pipes possess minimal costs, but they also meet the spatial constraints and safety regulations, as predicted. In addition to developing the routing procedure, we also design a visualization subsystem to reveal the progression of the piping process and the variation of the workspace in the run time. Based on the displayed images, users can therefore evaluate the quality of the pipes on the fly and tune the piping parameters if necessary.

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