THE MODELLING AND 3D COMPUTER RECONSTRUCTION OF A SUNKEN 
U BOAT 
S. Kulur, M. O. Altan, F.Yilmaztiirk 
ITU, Civil Engineering Faculty, 80626 Maslak Istanbul, Turkey - ( kulur, oaltan,yilmazturk )@itu.edu.tr 
Commission V, WG V/2 
KEY WORDS: Reconstruction, Visualization, Modelling, Close Range, Photo-realism, Simulation 
ABSTRACT: 
UB-46 submarine of the German Navy mined and sunk on the 7 Th December 1915 in Turkish Coast of Black sea. Its wreck has 
been found in 1993 during excavations of an open coalmine at the coast of Kemerburgaz, a village of Istanbul at Black sea. The 
wreck is now exhibited in the Military Naval Museum. The modelling and Computer reconstruction of the U Boat are realized using 
the metrical digital photographs of the wreck and historical information's supplied by the archives. This realization will contain the 
necessary basic information's to obtain the physical reconstruction. Visualization techniques will serve to demonstrate the model of 
the U Boat. 
1. INTRODUCTION 
Today, the 3D reconstruction and visualization techniques 
became very popular and useful methods in the field of close 
range photogrammetry. The integration of Photogrammetric 
Methods and Computer Graphics has brought many tools and 
techniques and most important synergy out. 
The presented paper is an integration of Photogrammetry and 
Computer graphics and uses digitised images and related 
control works with supplementary information provided by the 
archives. The end product of the data procession is the solid 
oriented surface structure. The output can be used through 
interfaces by CAD systems. 
The wreck of the UB46 German submarine, which is the 
starting point of this paper, exhibited in the Military Naval 
Museum and consists of three parts. These three parts 
corresponds approximately to the half size of the UBoat. The 
other half part has not been found during the excavation. These 
three parts has been taken out without break out. They are 
carrying the surface characteristics of the UBoat. The aim of 
this project is to model the U Boat surface using the historical 
information by means of photogrammetric methods and to 
obtain the computer reconstruction with the help of 
visualization techniques. — The modelling and Computer 
reconstruction of the U Boat are realized using the metrical 
digital photographs of the wreck and historical information's 
supplied by the archives. This realization will contain the 
necessary basic  information's to obtain the physical 
reconstruction. Visualization techniques will serve to 
demonstrate the real model of the U Boat. In this paper an 
integrated work of the photogrammetric and historical 
information’s on the U Boat wreck will be reported 
1.1 The History and the Technical Specifications of the U 
boat UB 46 
UB-46 was a coastal patrol submarine of the German Navy in 
the World War I and mined on the 7 Th December 1916 at 
Turkish Coast of Black Sea. It sank slowly with the tail first and 
from the country still survivor in the water was seen. With at 
the time the dominant rough sea, nobody could be saved. 
The wreck of SM UB 46 was rediscovered after 77 years, at the 
beginning of September 1993 during excavations of an open 
coalmine at the coast of Kemerburgaz, a village of Istanbul at 
Black sea. The wreck is now exhibited in the Military Naval 
Museum. (Figure 1) 
  
Figure 1. The wreck of UB46 Submarine 
UB46 was a UBII type coastal submarine and build at the AG 
Weser Bremen Shipyard and was laid down in 4 September 
1915. UB46 was commissioned to the Constantinople Flotilla 
and succeeded to sink 4 ships for a total of 8099 tons during its 
duty. 
  
  
Figure 2. An Archive image of UB Il Type Submarine 
  
  
  
   
  
  
   
  
  
    
    
   
   
   
  
  
  
  
  
  
    
  
   
    
    
   
   
  
  
  
  
  
   
   
  
   
   
     
   
  
  
    
   
    
  
   
       
    
     
  
   
   
  
   
  
  
  
  
   
   
   
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