Image analysis methods in the measurement of ice loads on structures

The icing of marine vessels and offshore structures causes significant reductions in their efficiency and creates unsafe working conditions. Ice detection and removal play important roles to reduce the risk of hazards and increase operational efficiency. Ice detection and measurement on structures are a challenge in marine industries, due to a lack of studies in this field. In this research, image processing methods are developed to measure ice loads on structures. Image processing algorithms are used to detect the ice accumulated on the structures and then the ice loads are calculated. The combination of thermal and visual imaging is suggested to detect ice, in order to reduce drawbacks occurring in these types of imaging. Also, the ice load is calculated on a known structure based on the structure information and the ice detection results. Experiments are conducted to verify the results of ice load measurements obtained by the algorithms. Ice loads are calculated in a variety of situations, such as using different imaging types, changing camera positions and angles of view and using different ice load values. The calculated ice load results show good coherence with the actual values obtained by measuring the samples which are used in the experimental setups