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US 10,989,673 B2Granted
Subsea computed tomography system with flat panel detectors
AssigneeOceaneering International, Inc.
InventorsRajashekar Venkatachalam, Michael William Killeen, James Reid McNab
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Abstract
A Computed Tomography (CT) system can be deployed by subsea vehicles such as remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) or by divers to perform CT inspections on a subsea structure. In embodiments, a marinized signal source and a marinized flat panel signal detector are positioned at a structure to be inspected subsea and possibly repositioned at different angles about the structure to acquire a series of 2D radiographic images which are then fed to a reconstruction algorithm that produces a 3D reconstructed volume of the structure being inspected.
Claims16
A subsea computed tomography tool, comprising:
- a. a housing configured for use subsea;
- b. a marinized signal source disposed at a first predetermined position at least partially within the housing;
- c. a marinized flat panel signal detector, comprising a digital detector array, disposed proximate the marinized signal source;
- d. a rotator operatively connected to the marinized signal source and the marinized flat panel digital detector, the rotator adapted to rotate the marinized signal source and the marinized flat panel digital detector about a structure to be inspected;
- e. a controller operatively in communication with and the marinized signal source, the marinized digital flat panel detector, and the rotator;
- f. a computer operatively in communication with the marinized signal source, the marinized digital flat panel detector, and the rotator, the computer comprising:
- i. reconstruction software operatively resident in the computer and operatively in communication with the marinized signal source and the marinized digital flat panel detector;
- ii. a predetermined set of predefined slice data for a predetermined structure;
- and
- iii. visualization software operatively resident in the computer and operatively able to access the predetermined set of predefined slice data for the given structure.
7 more elements
A subsea vehicle deployable system for subsea computed tomography system with flat panel detectors, comprising:
- a. a subsea vehicle deployable frame;
- b. a subsea computed tomography tool, comprising:
- i. a housing configured for use subsea;
- ii. a marinized signal source disposed at a first predetermined position at least partially within the housing;
- iii. a marinized flat panel signal detector, comprising a digital detector array, disposed proximate the marinized signal source;
- iv. a rotator operatively connected to the marinized signal source and the marinized flat panel digital detector, the rotator adapted to rotate the marinized signal source and the marinized flat panel digital detector about a structure to be inspected;
- v. a controller operatively in communication with and the marinized signal source, the marinized digital flat panel detector, and the rotator;
- c. a computer operatively in communication with the marinized signal source, the marinized digital flat panel detector, and the rotator, the computer comprising:
- i. reconstruction software operatively resident in the computer and operatively in communication with the marinized signal source and the marinized digital flat panel detector;
- ii. a predetermined set of predefined slice data for a predetermined structure;
- and
- iii. visualization software operatively resident in the computer and operatively able to access the predetermined set of predefined slice data for the given structure;
- and
- d. a predetermined set of subsea vehicle connector interfaces operatively in communication with the marinized signal source, the marinized digital flat panel detector, the rotator, the controller, and the computer.
11 more elements
A method of subsea computed tomography system with flat panel detectors, comprising:
- a. deploying a subsea vehicle subsea;
- b. securing a subsea vehicle deployable system for subsea computed tomography system with flat panel detectors to the subsea vehicle subsea, the subsea vehicle deployable system for subsea computed tomography system with flat panel detectors comprising:
- i. a subsea vehicle deployable frame to which the subsea vehicle is secured;
- ii. a subsea computed tomography tool, comprising:
- 1. a housing configured for use subsea;
- 2. a marinized signal source disposed at a first predetermined position at least partially within the housing;
- 3. a marinized flat panel signal detector, comprising a digital detector array, disposed proximate the marinized signal source;
- 4. a rotator operatively connected to the marinized signal source and the marinized flat panel digital detector, the rotator adapted to rotate the marinized signal source and the marinized flat panel digital detector about a structure to be inspected;
- 5. a controller operatively in communication with and the marinized signal source, the marinized digital flat panel detector, and the rotator;
- iii. a computer operatively in communication with the marinized signal source, the marinized digital flat panel detector, and the rotator, the computer comprising:
- 1. reconstruction software operatively resident in the computer and operatively in communication with the marinized signal source and the marinized digital flat panel detector;
- 2. a predetermined set of predefined slice data for a predetermined structure;
- and
- 3. visualization software operatively resident in the computer and operatively able to access the predetermined set of predefined slice data for the given structure;
- and
- iv. a predetermined set of subsea vehicle connector interfaces operatively in communication with the marinized signal source, the marinized digital flat panel detector, the rotator, the controller, and the computer;
- c. connecting a predetermined set of subsea vehicle electrical, optical, and hydraulic connections to the predetermined set of subsea vehicle connection interfaces;
- d. navigating the subsea vehicle to a predetermined location proximate a subsea structure to be inspected;
- e. unfastening the subsea computed tomography tool from the subsea vehicle deployable frame;
- f. securing the subsea computed tomography tool to the subsea structure;
- g. using the subsea computed tomography tool to acquire a predetermined series of two-dimensional (2D) radiographic images of the subsea structure by:
- i. exposing the subsea structure to a signal generated by the marinized signal source;
- and
- ii. detecting the generated signal using the marinized flat panel digital detector;
- h. providing the acquired 2D radiographic images to the computer;
- i. using the reconstruction software to create a voxelized three-dimensional (3D) matrix comprising density information of the subsea structure at a resolution as defined by the reconstruction software;
- and
- j. outputting the voxelized 3D matrix to a visual display.
25 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.