Online

Liu, Yì

Mechanical Engineering

2021

M.S.

A more complex underground pipe system is growing with the expansion of cities. However, there is no comprehensive database of underground pipes. Thus, it is urgent to build database with materials, positions, diameters, and etc. To locate the pipes is the first step. There are many ways to find pipes such as metal detector, ground penetrating radar, and acoustic method. Metal detectors are becoming increasing ineffective with more and more nonmetal is using in pipes. Ground penetrating radar is a precise way to find pipes but it is only works well under low moisture environment. Additionally, ground penetrating radar is not suitable for all of soil texture and there are about 50% ground in United State that unsuitable for ground penetrating radar. This paper uses acoustic pipe locator to detect underground pipes and then uses finite element method to restore approximate distribution of acoustic wave under detecting area. By using difference method on filtering finite element method results, a series of binary images are ready to generate 3D images.