Design of oil pipeline leak detection and communication system based on optical fiber technology

Author(s):  
Yaqing Tu ◽  
Huabo Chen
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (7) ◽  
pp. 3254
Author(s):  
Marco Pisco ◽  
Francesco Galeotti

The realization of advanced optical fiber probes demands the integration of materials and structures on optical fibers with micro- and nanoscale definition. Although researchers often choose complex nanofabrication tools to implement their designs, the migration from proof-of-principle devices to mass production lab-on-fiber devices requires the development of sustainable and reliable technology for cost-effective production. To make it possible, continuous efforts are devoted to applying bottom-up nanofabrication based on self-assembly to decorate the optical fiber with highly ordered photonic structures. The main challenges still pertain to “order” attainment and the limited number of implementable geometries. In this review, we try to shed light on the importance of self-assembled ordered patterns for lab-on-fiber technology. After a brief presentation of the light manipulation possibilities concerned with ordered structures, and of the new prospects offered by aperiodically ordered structures, we briefly recall how the bottom-up approach can be applied to create ordered patterns on the optical fiber. Then, we present un-attempted methodologies, which can enlarge the set of achievable structures, and can potentially improve the yielding rate in finely ordered self-assembled optical fiber probes by eliminating undesired defects and increasing the order by post-processing treatments. Finally, we discuss the available tools to quantify the degree of order in the obtained photonic structures, by suggesting the use of key performance figures of merit in order to systematically evaluate to what extent the pattern is really “ordered”. We hope such a collection of articles and discussion herein could inspire new directions and hint at best practices to fully exploit the benefits inherent to self-organization phenomena leading to ordered systems.


Author(s):  
XianYong Qin ◽  
LaiBin Zhang ◽  
ZhaoHui Wang ◽  
Wei Liang

Reliability, sensitivity and detecting time under practical operational conditions are the most important parameters of a leak detection system. With the development of hardware and software, more and more pipelines are installed with advanced SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition) system, so the compatibility of the leak detection system with SCADA system is also becoming important today. Pipeline leakage generates a sudden change in the pipeline pressure and flow. The paper introduces leak detecting methods according to the pipeline pressure wave change. In order to improve the compatibility of the leak detecting system, “OPC (Ole for process Control)” technology is used for obtaining the pressure signals from the distributed data collection system. Special focus is given on analysis of the pressure signals. It is successful to denoise the signals by means of wavelet scale shrinkage, and to capture the leak time tag using wavelet transform modulus maximum for locating the leak position accurately. A leak detecting system is established based on SCADA system. Tests and practical applications show that it locates leak position precisely. Good performance is obtained on both crude oil pipeline and product pipeline.


2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 ◽  
pp. 1-13
Author(s):  
Fang Wang ◽  
Jichuan Xing ◽  
Jinxin Li ◽  
Feng Zhao ◽  
Shufeng Zhang

With the development of technology, the total extent of global pipeline transportation is also increased. However, the traditional long-distance optical fiber prewarning system has poor real-time performance and high false alarm rate when recognizing events threatening pipeline safety. The same vibration signal would vary greatly when collected in different soil environments and this problem would reduce the signal recognition accuracy of the prewarning system. In this paper, we studied this effect theoretically and analyzed soil vibration signals under different soil conditions. Then we studied the signal acquisition problem of long-distance gas and oil pipeline prewarning system in real soil environment. Ultimately, an improved high-intelligence method was proposed for optimization. This method is based on the real application environment, which is more suitable for the recognition of optical fiber vibration signals. Through experiments, the method yielded high recognition accuracy of above 95%. The results indicate that the method can significantly improve signal acquisition and recognition and has good adaptability and real-time performance in the real soil environment.


Author(s):  
Jean-François Gravel ◽  
Martin Allard ◽  
François Babin ◽  
François Chateauneuf ◽  
Eric Bergeron

While natural gas pipelines already benefit from airborne, remote detection of leaks [1, 2], oil pipeline leak detection has been for a long time reliant on SCADA systems limited in their capability to detect very small leaks, and/or visual inspection of the right of way (line flyers, pipeline employees or members of the public). This paper presents a novel and complementary way of detecting small leaks (i.e. sensitivity of 0.1 L/minute, 1 barrel/day) of oil (crude or refined products) using an optical detection system mounted on an airborne platform (UAV, plane or helicopter). The scope of this paper is based on the requirements provided by TransCanada, namely sensitivity (herein referred as LOD — Limit of Detection) and accuracy (herein referred as spatial resolution) as similar to their description in API 1130, while the topic of reliability is addressed in our noted concerns on the false alarms that may be generated in Infrared-DiAL based systems due to soil reflectivity. Robustness, as described in API 1130, was out of scope. Keeping in mind the requirement of airborne operation, three different approaches for the detection of leaks along long pipeline ROWs were studied. Infrared Differential Absorption lidar (IR-DiAL), UltraViolet Raman lidar (UV-Raman lidar) and UltraViolet Laser-Induced Fluorescence lidar (UV-LIF lidar) have been tested in realistic conditions. In the first round of tests, laboratory spectral measurements of vapors in a closed cell were performed. In the second round of tests, the breadboards were placed in a mobile laboratory and the light beams aimed at a large open at 40 to 50 meters and reflected off a sand target. Finally, the mobile laboratory with the breadboards was installed at ∼40 meters from a leak simulator. The leak simulator was made by using a large sand container in which petroleum products were leaked. Intermediate scale leak simulator tests showed that it is clearly a challenge to correlate a measured concentration to an actual leak size. Tests have also shown that there is a strong concentration gradient in the air above a leak. This indicates that a better overall detection performance should be obtained with a measurement using the air next to the ground, and that it is feasible to detect a leak of less than 1 barrel/day. UV-Raman tests performed in the outdoors suggested a Limit Of Detection (LOD) of the system below 1 500 ppm-m when detecting all hydrocarbons. Because of the hardware that would be needed to lower this detection limit, results suggest abandoning the Raman technique for remote leak detection from an airborne platform. IR-DiAL showed the best sensitivity for the detection of hydrocarbons (< 1 ppm-m of LOD). However the effective LOD will be reduced because of the soil spectral reflectance variations that may lead to a high false alarm rate for concentrations of hydrocarbons lower than 235 ppm-m. The UV-absorption approach was also briefly tested, suggesting a LOD for benzene of between 1.5 and 2.5 ppm-m. The UV absorption of benzene is not affected by ground spectral reflectance variations. This is an approach that will be investigated further.


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