JPH0224461A - Snow-removing method and device for membrane-structured roof - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To improve snow-removing efficiency by electrically detecting snowed situation of each block from images taken by a TV camera for the surface of a membrane-structured roof, and by operating and controlling, based on the electric information, snow-melting devices installed on each block of the roof. CONSTITUTION:The surface of a membrane-structured roof 1 is divided into several blocks 1a, and each of the blocks is made into a structure that is heated independently by a snow-melting device 2. In this device 2, an air blower 2b is installed behind an electric or a hot-water heater 2a, and hot air is blown off from an outlet 4. Images taken by a TV camera 10 installed on the upper side of the roof 1 are inputted into a snow situation survey device 11, and the device 11 detects whether or not any of the blocks 1a requires snow-melting. Based on the detection, a thyrister 7 and an inverter 8 are switched on through a direct-to-alternating current converter 12, and a damper 5 is opened thereby for snow-melting. With such device, safe and efficient snow-removing can be made.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to a snow removal method and a snow removal device for removing accumulated snow from a circular or arched membrane structure roof surface, and more specifically to a snow removal device for removing accumulated snow from a membrane structure roof surface into a plurality of blocks. The snow melting device is divided into blocks and is operated appropriately depending on the snow distribution state on the membrane structure roof surface.

``Conventional technology'' In order to reduce the snow load on the membrane structure roof or to bring in outside light, snow melting devices such as infrared irradiation devices and hot air blowers are installed in each block of the membrane structure roof.
The snow is melted by heat on the surface of the snow that is in contact with the roof, causing the snow to slide off.

In this type of conventional snow removal method, a person climbs onto the membrane structure roof and visually inspects it, or a person takes an image of the membrane structure roof with a television camera and views it on a monitor television to understand the snow distribution.

A person operated the snow melting equipment corresponding to the part of the roof where there was snow to be activated, and the snow melting equipment for other areas was turned off.

``Problem to be solved by the invention'' In conventional snow removal methods, it is dangerous for people to climb onto the membrane structure roof to check the snow distribution, and it is difficult to quickly and accurately grasp the snow condition. When a person looks at a monitor TV to understand the snow distribution, the person must turn on and off multiple snow melting devices after understanding the snow condition, which requires a lot of effort. . Therefore, it is difficult to operate the snow melting device efficiently for snow removal, and the snow melting device has to be driven redundantly, resulting in a large energy loss.

Therefore, the present invention electrically accurately detects snow distribution, and automatically operates snow melting equipment at necessary locations based on the detection results, thereby improving the operating efficiency of the snow melting equipment and ensuring that snow melting equipment is always properly and properly operated. The purpose is to enable safe snow removal.

"Means for Solving the Problem" The snow removal method of the present invention divides a membrane structure roof into a plurality of blocks, provides a snow melting device for each block, and uses a television camera to image the membrane structure roof. It is electrically detected whether snow is present in each of the blocks. The operating switches of each snow melting device are controlled ON and OFF based on the detected electrical information, melting the snow surface in contact with the membrane structure roof, and causing the snow to slide off.

In the snow removal device of the present invention, a membrane structure roof is divided into a plurality of blocks, each block is provided with a snow melting device, and each snow melting device is turned on and off.
An OFF switching device is installed so that the snow melting device can be operated for each block.A television camera is installed to take images of the membrane structure roof.The images from this television camera are used to detect the snow distribution and the snow melting device is activated for each block. A snow distribution condition grasping device is provided to detect whether or not snow is present, and a D/A converter is further provided to switch the ON-OFF switching device in accordance with the detected information.

``Operation'' The presence or absence of snow on each block of a membrane structure roof is determined by dividing the image taken by a television camera into each pixel in the shape of a base, converting the density of each pixel into digital information, and then determining whether snow is present in each block of the membrane structure roof. Positions where two pixels have high density are sequentially detected. The snowfall surface and the roof surface have different concentrations, and the position where the concentration difference is large represents the interface of the snowfall distribution. Therefore, by combining the information detected as having a large concentration difference, the snowfall distribution can be understood. Then, based on the detected snow distribution area, it is calculated and electrically detected whether snow is present in each block. In other words, it is possible to detect whether or not snow is present in each block of the membrane structure roof without having to visually confirm it.

Based on this electrical detection value, the D/A converter controls the ON-OFF switching device of each snow melting device. That is, the snow melting device is turned ON in blocks where snow is present, and the snow melting device is turned OFF in other blocks.

As described above, grasping the snow distribution and controlling the operation of the snow-covering device can all be electrically operated, and moreover, these operations can be performed continuously.

"Example" Embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. 1 to 4.

The membrane structure roof l is formed in a circular or arched shape, and is partitioned into a plurality of blocks la by drawing a plurality of vertical boundary lines on the top ridge line. Each block of membrane structure roof
A snow melting device 2 is provided for each block, and is capable of heating the membrane structure roof surface for each block.
are arranged, and the hot air from the heater 2a is blown out through the duct 4 from the air outlet 4a provided for each block 1a, so that the lower surface of the membrane structure roof 1 of each block can be heated.

An electric damper 5 is provided at each outlet 4a, and each of the electric dampers 5 is opened and closed by a thyristor 6. Also, the heater 2a is a thyristor 7'
t@Blower 2b is configured to be activated and deactivated via an inverter 8.

All the thyristors θ and 7 are connected to a power source S, and are controlled to be turned on and off as described later.

A television camera 10 is arranged above the membrane structure roof 1, and the captured image of the membrane structure roof surface is inputted to a snow distribution state grasping device 11 to detect the snow distribution on the membrane structure roof surface. Note that the snow distribution state grasping device 11 is an A/D conversion circuit as shown in FIG. ! An A/D conversion circuit 11a consisting of δ, memory llb, and arithmetic processing circuit lie
One screen's worth of image information obtained by the Revi camera IO is divided into each pixel in the shape of an eye on the base, and the density of each pixel is converted into digital data. The memory Ilb stores the digital data of each pixel, and sequentially supplies the digital data of one vertical or horizontal column of pixels on the screen to the arithmetic processing circuit 11c. The arithmetic processing circuit lie includes the memory 11b
Of the digital data stored in the system, two pixels adjacent to each other in the vertical or horizontal direction on the screen are sequentially compared to detect the position with a large difference in immersion level, and all detected values are combined to determine the actual membrane structure roof surface. Convert to snow distribution. That is, as shown in FIG. 4, the turbidity difference is large between the snow surface S and the roof surface R, and the position where the turbidity difference is large between the adjacent pixels R1 and 51 represents the snow surface interface. In addition, the arithmetic processing circuit 11c calculates each block based on the obtained snow distribution area! It is designed to calculate and output whether or not there is snow cover at point a.

The output information of the snow distribution condition grasping device 11 is input to the D/A converter 12. The D/A converter 12 uses the thyristor 6 to connect the air outlet 4 to the block where snow is present.
The air outlet 4a is opened, and the air outlet 4a is closed by the thyristor B for blocks where there is no snow. Further, the D/A converter 12 operates when there is snow in a certain block la.

It outputs an output that turns on the thyristor 7 of the heater 2a and the inverter 8 for the blower 2b, and turns them off in other cases.

The snow removal method using the following snow removal equipment is as follows. The membrane structure roof 1 is imaged by the television camera 10,
The image information is input to the snow distribution state understanding device IT.

In the snow distribution state grasping device 11.

The snow distribution on the membrane structure roof surface is detected, and it is also detected whether each block 1a of the two membrane structure roof falls within the snow distribution area. Upon receiving the detection output, the D/A converter 12 turns the thyristor 7 on when there is a block with snow.
Turn on the heater 2a and the inverter 8 in the N state.
In this state, the blower 2b is operated, and the damper 4a is opened for blocks where snow is present to supply hot air to the blocks. This hot air melts the surface of the snow that touches the roof, causing the snow to slide down the slope. When all the snow has been removed, the D/A converter 12. receives the information from the snow distribution state grasping device 11, closes the air outlet with the thyristor 6, and turns off the thyristor 7 and inverter 8.
Set to F to stop the snow melting device.

In the above embodiment, the snow distribution state grasping device 11 detects the snow distribution on the membrane structure roof to determine whether there is snow in each block, but instead, an image of the membrane structure roof is displayed in each block. It may be divided correspondingly and directly detect whether there is snow in each block in the image, that is, whether there is snow in each block in the image is determined by the A/D.
The conversion circuit 11a divides each block into eye-shaped pixels of the base, converts each pixel into digital data according to the density, and the arithmetic processing circuit He calculates the density of each pixel in each block Iff and square a corresponding to snowfall. The presence or absence of snow in each block is detected by detecting whether there is something (for example, something whose brightness is much higher than the roof surface).

Next, a snow removal device different from the one described above will be explained with reference to FIG. In this embodiment, infrared irradiation devices 13 are used as snow melting devices M2, and two infrared irradiation devices 13 are provided in each block 1a. Each infrared irradiation device 13 is connected to a power source 14, a thyristor 15 is provided in the middle of the conductor connected to the infrared irradiation device 13 of each block, and each thyristor 15 is controlled to be turned on or off by a D/A converter 12. It looks like this. The rest of the structure is the same as the previous embodiment, and the snow removal method using it is also the same if the snow melting device is replaced with an infrared irradiation device.

"Effects of the Invention" In the snow removal method and snow removal device of the present invention, a membrane structure roof is divided into a plurality of blocks, and it is detected whether snow is present in each block, and a snow melting device is installed in each block. There is no need for people to monitor the snow distribution or to stop the snow melting equipment, and it is possible to safely and efficiently remove snow from the membrane structure roof. In addition, since only the snow melting devices for the necessary blocks of the membrane roof are automatically and quickly activated, energy efficiency is high.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Fig. 1 is a system diagram showing the snow removal method and snow removal device of the present invention, Fig. 2 is a cross-sectional view of a membrane structure roof, Fig. 3 is a block diagram showing the operation system of the snow distribution condition grasping device, and Fig. 4 is a snow removal system. An explanatory diagram showing the detection of the distribution state, and FIG. 5 is a system diagram showing a separate embodiment of the snow removal device. 1; Membrane structure roof 2; Snow melting device 6.7; Thyristor 8; Inverter lO; TV camera 11; Snow distribution condition grasping device 12; D/A converter Fig. 3 Fig. 4 Fig. 5

Claims (2)

[Claims] (1) In a snow removal method in which a membrane structure roof is divided into multiple blocks and a snow melting device is installed in each block, the snow melting device melts the snow-covered surface that is in contact with the membrane structure roof. It is electrically detected whether or not snow is present in each block in the image obtained by taking the image, and based on the electrical information, a switching device to stop the operation of the snow melting device provided in each block is activated. ON-OF respectively
A snow removal method for a membrane structure roof surface characterized by F control. (2) A snow melting device installed in each block with a membrane structure roof divided into multiple sections, and an ON-OFF switch installed in each snow melting device.
A switching device, a TV camera that takes an image of the membrane structure roof, and a snow distribution state grasping system that grasps the snow distribution on the membrane structure roof surface using the images obtained by the TV camera and detects whether or not snow is present in each of the blocks. 1. A snow removal device for a membrane structure roof surface, comprising: a device; and a D/A converter that switches the ON-OFF switching device according to the detected information thereof.