Point cloud and image-based prestressed concrete cylinder pipe deformation detection

Monitoring the deformation of Prestressed Concrete Cylinder Pipe is critical for delineating its service envelope and ensuring long-term reliability, yet accurate measurement of global deformation remains challenging. To address this gap, this paper proposes Pipe2pipe method for global PCCP deformation detection and compares discrepancies across measurement methods; the best-performing approach achieves an average error of 0.6%. To quantify fine-scale deformations that are difficult to resolve directly from point clouds, but are equally indicative of PCCP performance, such as crack and wire retraction, a calibration-free technique based on image–point cloud feature matching is introduced. Without explicit camera calibration, the method measures wire retraction with an average relative error of 7.2% and crack width with an average error of 7.4%. In Conclusion, the integration of global and local deformation detection framework provides a quantified assessment of PCCP, offering valuable reference for broader structural health monitoring of cylindrical structures.