scholarly journals External Corrosion Detection of Oil Pipelines Using Fiber Optics

Sensors ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (3) ◽  
pp. 684 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nader Vahdati ◽  
Xueting Wang ◽  
Oleg Shiryayev ◽  
Paul Rostron ◽  
Fook Fah Yap

Oil flowlines, the first “pipeline” system connected to the wellhead, are pipelines that are 5 to 30.5 cm (two to twelve inches) in diameter, most susceptible to corrosion, and very difficult to inspect. Herein, an external corrosion detection sensor for oil and gas pipelines, consisting of a semicircular plastic strip, a flat dog-bone-shaped sacrificial metal plate made out of the same pipeline material, and an optical fiber with Fiber Bragg Grating (FBG) sensors, is described. In the actual application, multiple FBG optical fibers are attached to an oil and gas pipeline using straps or strips or very large hose clamps, and, every few meters, our proposed corrosion detection sensor will be glued to the FBG sensors. When the plastic parts are attached to the sacrificial metals, the plastic parts will be deformed and stressed; thus, placing the FBG sensors in tension. When corrosion is severe at any given pipeline location, the sacrificial metal at that location will corrode till failure and the tension strain is relieved at that FBG Sensor location, and therefore, a signal is detected at the interrogator. Herein, the external corrosion detection sensor and its design equations are described, and experimental results, verifying our theory, are presented.

Sensors ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (14) ◽  
pp. 4865
Author(s):  
Kinzo Kishida ◽  
Artur Guzik ◽  
Ken’ichi Nishiguchi ◽  
Che-Hsien Li ◽  
Daiji Azuma ◽  
...  

Distributed acoustic sensing (DAS) in optical fibers detect dynamic strains or sound waves by measuring the phase or amplitude changes of the scattered light. This contrasts with other distributed (and more conventional) methods, such as distributed temperature (DTS) or strain (DSS), which measure quasi-static physical quantities, such as intensity spectrum of the scattered light. DAS is attracting considerable attention as it complements the conventional distributed measurements. To implement DAS in commercial applications, it is necessary to ensure a sufficiently high signal-noise ratio (SNR) for scattered light detection, suppress its deterioration along the sensing fiber, achieve lower noise floor for weak signals and, moreover, perform high-speed processing within milliseconds (or sometimes even less). In this paper, we present a new, real-time DAS, realized by using the time gated digital-optical frequency domain reflectometry (TGD-OFDR) method, in which the chirp pulse is divided into overlapping bands and assembled after digital decoding. The developed prototype NBX-S4000 generates a chirp signal with a pulse duration of 2 μs and uses a frequency sweep of 100 MHz at a repeating frequency of up to 5 kHz. It allows one to detect sound waves at an 80 km fiber distance range with spatial resolution better than a theoretically calculated value of 2.8 m in real time. The developed prototype was tested in the field in various applications, from earthquake detection and submarine cable sensing to oil and gas industry applications. All obtained results confirmed effectiveness of the method and performance, surpassing, in conventional SM fiber, other commercially available interrogators.


Author(s):  
Mohadese Jahanian ◽  
Amin Ramezani ◽  
Ali Moarefianpour ◽  
Mahdi Aliari Shouredeli

One of the most significant systems that can be expressed by partial differential equations (PDEs) is the transmission pipeline system. To avoid the accidents that originated from oil and gas pipeline leakage, the exact location and quantity of leakage are required to be recognized. The designed goal is a leakage diagnosis based on the system model and the use of real data provided by transmission line systems. Nonlinear equations of the system have been extracted employing continuity and momentum equations. In this paper, the extended Kalman filter (EKF) is used to detect and locate the leakage and to attenuate the negative effects of measurement and process noises. Besides, a robust extended Kalman filter (REKF) is applied to compensate for the effect of parameter uncertainty. The quantity and the location of the occurred leakage are estimated along the pipeline. Simulation results show that REKF has better estimations of the leak and its location as compared with that of EKF. This filter is robust against process noise, measurement noise, parameter uncertainties, and guarantees a higher limit for the covariance of state estimation error as well. It is remarkable that simulation results are evaluated by OLGA software.


Sensors ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (9) ◽  
pp. 2503
Author(s):  
Kostas Amoiropoulos ◽  
Georgia Kioselaki ◽  
Nikolaos Kourkoumelis ◽  
Aris Ikiades

Using either bulk or fiber optics the profile of laser beams can be altered from Gaussian to top-hat or hollow beams allowing enhanced performance in applications like laser cooling, optical trapping, and fiber sensing. Here, we report a method based on multimode Plastic Optical Fibers (POF) long-tapers, to tweak the beam profile from near Gaussian to a hollow beam, by generating surface irregularities on the conical sections of the taper with a heat-and-pull technique. Furthermore, a cutback technique applied on long tapers expanded the output beam profile by more than twice the numerical aperture (NA) of the fiber. The enhanced sensitivity and detection efficiency of the extended profile was tested on a fiber optical ice sensor related to aviation safety.


Author(s):  
Jai Prakash Sah ◽  
Mohammad Tanweer Akhter

Managing the integrity of pipeline system is the primary goal of every pipeline operator. To ensure the integrity of pipeline system, its health assessment is very important and critical for ensuring safety of environment, human resources and its assets. In long term, managing pipeline integrity is an investment to asset protection which ultimately results in cost saving. Typically, the health assessment to managing the integrity of pipeline system is a function of operational experience and corporate philosophy. There is no single approach that can provide the best solution for all pipeline system. Only a comprehensive, systematic and integrated integrity management program provides the means to improve the safety of pipeline systems. Such programme provides the information for an operator to effectively allocate resources for appropriate prevention, detection and mitigation activities that will result in improved safety and a reduction in the number of incidents. Presently GAIL (INDIA) LTD. is operating & maintaining approximately 10,000Kms of natural gas/RLNG/LPG pipeline and HVJ Pipeline is the largest pipeline network of India which transports more than 50% of total gas being consumed in this country. HVJ pipeline system consists of more than 4500 Kms of pipeline having diameter range from 04” to 48”, which consist of piggable as well as non-piggable pipeline. Though, lengthwise non-piggable pipeline is very less but their importance cannot be ignored in to the totality because of their critical nature. Typically, pipeline with small length & connected to dispatch terminal are non-piggable and these pipelines are used to feed the gas to the consumer. Today pipeline industries are having three different types of inspection techniques available for inspection of the pipeline. 1. Inline inspection 2. Hydrostatic pressure testing 3. Direct assessment (DA) Inline inspection is possible only for piggable pipeline i.e. pipeline with facilities of pig launching & receiving and hydrostatic pressure testing is not possible for the pipeline under continuous operation. Thus we are left with direct assessment method to assess health of the non-piggable pipelines. Basically, direct assessment is a structured multi-step evaluation method to examine and identify the potential problem areas relating to internal corrosion, external corrosion, and stress corrosion cracking using ICDA (Internal Corrosion Direct Assessment), ECDA (External Corrosion Direct Assessment) and SCCDA (Stress Corrosion Direct Assessment). All the above DA is four steps iterative method & consist of following steps; a. Pre assessment b. Indirect assessment c. Direct assessment d. Post assessment Considering the importance of non-piggable pipeline, integrity assessment of following non piggable pipeline has done through direct assessment method. 1. 30 inch dia pipeline of length 0.6 km and handling 18.4 MMSCMD of natural gas 2. 18 inch dia pipeline of length 3.65 km and handling 4.0 MMSCMD of natural gas 3. 12 inch dia pipeline of length 2.08 km and handling 3.4 MMSCMD of natural gas In addition to ICDA, ECDA & SCCDA, Long Range Ultrasonic Thickness (LRUT-a guided wave technology) has also been carried out to detect the metal loss at excavated locations observed by ICDA & ECDA. Direct assessment survey for above pipelines has been conducted and based on the survey; high consequence areas have been identified. All the high consequence area has been excavated and inspected. No appreciable corrosion and thickness loss have observed at any area. However, pipeline segments have been identified which are most vulnerable and may have corrosion in future.


2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 45-56
Author(s):  
Imam Mulyanto

The analysis of fiber optics for macro bending-based slope sensors using SMF-28 single-mode optical fibers has been successfully conducted. Fiber optics were treated to silicon rubber molding and connected with laser light and power meters to measure the intensity of laser power generated. The working principle was carried out using the macrobending phenomenon on single-mode optical fibers. The intensity of laser light in fiber optic cables decreases in the event of indentation or bending of the fiber optic cable. Power losses resulting from the macrobending process can be seen in the result of the information sensitivity of fiber optics to the change of angle given. From the results of the study, the resulting fiber optic sensitivity value is -0.1534o/dBm. The larger the angle given, the lower the laser intensity received by the power meter.


2022 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 886
Author(s):  
Hun-Kook Choi ◽  
Young-Jun Jung ◽  
Bong-Ahn Yu ◽  
Jae-Hee Sung ◽  
Ik-Bu Sohn ◽  
...  

This paper demonstrates the fabrication of radiation-resistant fiber Bragg grating (FBG) sensors using infrared femtosecond laser irradiation. FBG sensors were written inside acrylate-coated fluorine-doped single-mode specialty optical fibers. We detected the Bragg resonance at 1542 nm. By controlling the irradiation conditions, we improved the signal strength coming out from the FBG sensors. A significant reduction in the Bragg wavelength shift was detected in the fabricated FBG sensors for a radiation dose up to 105 gray, indicating excellent radiation resistance capabilities. We also characterized the temperature sensitivity of the radiation-resistant FBG sensors and detected outstanding performance.


Author(s):  
Shahani Kariyawasam ◽  
Patrick Yeung ◽  
Stuart Clouston ◽  
Geoffrey Hurd

In 2009 a pipeline within the TransCanada pipeline system experienced a rupture. As this pipeline was already under a rigorous In Line Inspection (ILI) based corrosion management program this failure led to an extensive root cause analysis. Even though the hazard causing the failure was microbiologically induced corrosion (MIC) under tape coating, the more troubling question was “Why had the severity of this anomaly not been determined by the ILI based corrosion management program?” This led to an investigation of what key characteristics of the ILI signals resulting from areas of “complex corrosion” are more difficult to correctly interpret and size and furthermore where the line condition is such that manual verification is needed. By better understanding the limitations of the technology, processes used, and the critical defect signal characteristics, criteria were developed to ensure that “areas of concern” are consistently identified, manually verified and therefore the sizing is validated at these potentially higher risk locations. These new criteria were applied on ILI data and then validated against in-the-ditch measurements and a hydrotest. This process in conjunction with optimization of ILI sizing algorithms enabled the operator to overcome some of the known challenges in sizing areas of complex corrosion and update its corrosion management process to improve the detection and remediation of critical defects. This paper describes this investigation of the failure location, development of the complex corrosion criteria, and the validation of effectiveness of the criteria. The criteria are focused on external corrosion and have been currently validated on pipelines of concern. Application to other lines should be similarly validated.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Olivier Coutant ◽  
Ludovic Moreau ◽  
Pierre Boué ◽  
Eric Larose ◽  
Arnaud Cimolino

<p>Accurate monitoring of floating ice thickness is an important safety issue for northern countries where lakes, fjords, and coasts are covered with ice in winter, and used by people to travel. For example in Finland, 15-20 fatal accidents occur every year due to ice-related drowning. We have explored the potential of fiber optics to measure the propagation of seismic waves guided in the ice layer, in order to infer its thickness via the inversion of the dispersion curves. An optical fiber was deployed on a frozen lake at Lacs Roberts (2400m) above Grenoble and we measured with a DAS the signal generated by active sources (hammer) and ambient noise. We demonstrate that we can retrieve the ice thickness. This monitoring method could be of interest since the deployment of a fiber on ice is quite simple (e.g. using a drone) compared to other techniques for ice thickness estimation such as seismic survey or manual drilling.</p>


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