Abstract
Pipe routing, in particular branch pipes with multiple terminals, has an important influence on product performance and reliability. This paper develops a new rectilinear branch pipe routing approach for automatic generation of the optimal rectilinear branch pipe routes in constrained spaces. Firstly, this paper presents a new 3D connection graph, which is constructed by extending a new 2D connection graph. The new 2D connection graph is constructed according to five criteria in discrete Manhattan spaces. The 3D connection graph can model the 3D constrained layout space efficiently. The length of pipelines and the number of bends are modeled as the optimal design goal considering the number of branch points and three types of engineering constraints. Three types of engineering constraints are modeled by this 3D graph and potential value. Secondly, a new concurrent Max–Min Ant System optimization algorithm, which adopts concurrent search strategy and dynamic update mechanism, is used to solve Rectilinear Branch Pipe Routing optimization problem. This algorithm can improve the search efficiency in 3D constrained layout space. Numerical comparisons with other current approaches in literatures demonstrate the efficiency and effectiveness of the proposed approach. Finally, a case study of pipe routing for aero-engines is conducted to validate this approach.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Asmara, A., & Nienhuis, U. (2006). Automatic piping system in ship. In The 5th international conference on computer and IT applications in the maritime industries, Sieca Repro.
Bullnheimer, B., Hartl, R. F., & Strauss, C. (1999). A new rank based version of the Ant System—A computational study. Central European Journal for Operations Research and Economics, 7(1), 25–38.
Dorigo, M., & Gambardella, L. M. (1997). Ant colonies for the travelling salesman problem. Biosystems, 43(2), 73–81.
Dorigo, M., Maniezzo, V., & Colorni, A. (1996). Ant System: Optimization by a colony of cooperating agents. IEEE Transactions on Systems Man and Cybernetics Part B-Cybernetics, 26(1), 29–41.
Fan, J., Ma, M., & Yang, X. G. (2003). Research on automatic laying out for external pipeline for aeroengine. Journal of Mechanical Design, 20(7), 21–23. (in Chinese).
Ganley, J. L., & Cohoon, J. P. (1994). Routing a multi terminal critical net: Steiner tree construction in the presence of obstacles. In Proceedings of IEEE international symposium on circuits and systens (ISCAS), Lundon.
Hu, X. B. (2004). Research on principles, theory and application of Ant Colony Optimization. Chongqing: Chongqing University.
Hu, Y., Jing, T., Hong, X., Feng, Z., Hu, X., & Yan, G. (2005). An-OARSMan: Obstacle-avoiding routing tree construction with good length performance. In Proceedings of the 2005 Asia and South Pacific design automation conference. ACM.
Ito, T. (1999). A genetic algorithm approach to piping route path planning. Journal Of Intelligent Manufacturing, 10(1), 103–114.
Kim, S. H., Ruy, W. S., & Jang, B. S. (2013). The development of a practical pipe auto-routing system in a shipbuilding CAD environment using network optimization. International Journal of Naval Architecture and Ocean Engineering, 5(3), 468–477.
Lee, C. Y. (1961). An algorithm for path connections and its applications. IRE Transactions on Electronic Computers, 10(3), 346–365.
Liu, Q., & Wang, C. E. (2011). A discrete particle swarm optimization algorithm for rectilinear branch pipe routing. Assembly Automation, 31(4), 363–368.
Park, J. H., & Storch, R. L. (2002). Pipe-routing algorithm development: Case study of a ship engine room design. Expert Systems With Applications, 23(3), 299–309.
Ren, T., Zhu, Z. L., Dimirovski, G. M., Gao, Z. H., Sun, X. H., & Yu, H. (2013). A new pipe routing method for aero-engines based on genetic algorithm. Journal of Aerospace Engineering. doi:10.1177/0954410012474134.
Rezaei, G., Afshar, M. H., & Rohani, M. (2014). Layout optimization of looped networks by constrained ant colony optimisation algorithm. Advances in Engineering Software, 70, 123–133.
Stütale, T., & Hoos, H. H. (2000). MAX–MIN Ant System. Future Generation Computer Systems, 16(8), 889–914.
Wu, Y.-F., Widmayer, P., Schlag, M. D. F., & Wong, C. K. (1987). Rectilinear shortest paths and minimum spanning trees in the presence of rectilinear obstacles. IEEE Transactions on Computers, 36(3), 321–331.
Yin, Y. H., Xu, L. D., Bi, Z., Chen, H., & Zhou, C. (2013). Novel human–machine collaborative interface for aero-engine pipe routing. IEEE Transactions on Industrial Informatics, 9(4), 2187–2199.
Yin, Y. H., Zhou, C., & Zhu, J. Y. (2010). A pipe route design methodology by imitating human imaginal thinking. CIRP Annals-Manufacturing Technology, 59(1), 167–170.
Acknowledgments
The authors thank the editor and anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments and suggestions. The work was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 51175341).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Qu, Y., Jiang, D. & Yang, Q. Branch pipe routing based on 3D connection graph and concurrent ant colony optimization algorithm. J Intell Manuf 29, 1647–1657 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10845-016-1203-4
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10845-016-1203-4