Fully Automated CAD/BIM Modeling of Pipe Structures from Plant Environment 3D Point Cloud

This paper describes a fully automated method for generating 3D pipe models with wall thickness from 3D point cloud data. In decommissioning of Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station, rapid 3D modeling of plant structures is essential for dose assessment and remote operation planning. In our method, pipe regions are first discriminated, then scanned along three orthogonal axes to extract pipe instances, followed by geometric fitting with wall thickness for use in shielding calculations. Finally, generated models are exported in Computer-Aided Design (CAD) and Building Information Modeling (BIM) formats for using facility management. Our method was validated on a 3D point cloud measured in a mock-up plant environment. We confirmed a high conversion rate and reduced processing time by restricting computation to pipe regions. The output models were imported into existing software without errors.