Development of a Petroleum Pipeline Monitoring System for Characterization of Damages Using a Fourier Transform

Abstract

Significant damage to the environment and huge economic losses are potential problems caused by leakage from petroleum pipelines. The occurrence of a leakage in a pipeline throughout its lifetime is very difficult to prevent. To minimize environmental damage and high economic losses, an efficient pipeline monitoring system is required to carry out damage characterization thereby enhancing quick response. The signal processing technique of sampling and reconstruction was adopted and mathematical algorithms for the characterization of damages in pipes were developed using the Fourier transform method. These were simulated with the results showing a good agreement between the shapes and magnitudes of the measured original and reconstructed pulses. The simulation was verified with experiments on the test rig. The results showed an underestimation in the magnitudes of the reconstructed pulses in the range of 40 – 45 %. This problem was solved by using a factor K obtained by dividing the maximum amplitude value of the original pressure pulse by that of the reconstructed pulse. Reconstruction of the measured original pulse at a damage location was achieved from combining the measured pulses from two other close locations using the developed Fourier transform based model.