The automatic measurement system of large vertical storage tank volume based on 3D laser scanning principle

Abstract

According to the traditional geometric methods have some shortcomings, such as low accuracy, low work efficiency and high risk factor in the capacity measurement, it is presented an automatic measurement system and method of large vertical storage tank volume based on three-dimensional (3D) Laser Scanning Principle in the paper. The calculation model of vertical tank volume is established and the key algorithms are researched for the point cloud data analysis. By calculating the cross-sectional area along the horizontal direction and integrating from vertical direction, the volume value is automatic calculated in the different liquids. Selected a vertical tank as the test object, which the nominal capacity is 1000m3, it is shown the good repeatability and reappearance of the system proposed in the paper. The experimental comparison system is designed, and the measurement experiment is carried out in three different vertical tanks which the nominal capacity is 1000 m3, 2500 m3 and 5000 m3, respectively. The validity of the proposed method is verified by using the traditional capacity measurement method as reference.