Pipeline Leakage Detection and Localization Using Distributed Fiber Optic Sensing

PIPELINE LEAKAGE DETECTION AND LOCALIZATION USING DISTRIBUTED FIBER OPTIC SENSING
NAVEEN GUPTA
E-MAIL: [email protected]
ABSTRACT
Distributed fiber optic sensing offers the ability to measure temperatures and strain at thousandsof points along a single fiber. This is particularly interesting for the monitoring of pipelines, where it allows the detection and localization of leakages of much smaller volume than conventional volume balance techniques. Sensing systems based on Brillouin and Raman scattering are used to detect and localize leakages in fluid, gas and multiphase pipelines, allowing the monitoring of hundreds of kilometers of pipeline with a single instrument and the localization of the leakage with a precision of 1 or 2 meters. Early applications of this technology have demonstrated that the design and production of sensing cables and their optimal location around the pipeline section are critical elements for the success of any distributed sensing instrumentation project. This contribution presents advances in distributed sensing and in novel sensing cable design for distributed temperature and strain measurements. The proper installation technique and location around the pipe is discussed for fluid and gas pipelines installed above ground, below ground and offshore.The paper also reports a number of significant field application examples of this technology as well as field tests with controlled.
1. INTRODUCTION
Flowlines pipelines or gas-lines often cross hazardous environmental areas, from the point of view natural exposures such as landslides and earthquakes, and from the pointof view of third party influences such as vandalism or obstruction. These hazards can significantly change the original functioning of the flowline, leading to damaging, leakage and failure with serious economic and ecologic consequences. Furthermore, the operational conditions of the pipeline itself can induce additional wearing or evendamage due to corrosion, erosion and fatigue. The structural and functional monitoring can significantlyimprove the pipeline management and safety. Providing regularly with parameters featuring the structural and functional condition of the flowline, monitoring can help (1) prevent the failure, (2) detect in time the problem and its position and (3) undertake maintenance and repair activities in time. Thus the safety is increased, maintenance cost optimized and economic losses decreased. Typical structural parameters to be monitored are strain and curvature while the most interesting functional parameters are temperature distribution, leakage and third-party intrusion. Since the flowlines are usually tubular structures with kilometric lengths, structural monitoring of their full extent is an issue itself. The use of the discrete sensors, short- or long-gage is practically impossible, because it requires installation of thousands of sensors and very complex cabling and data acquisition systems, raising the monitoring costs. Therefore, the applicability of the discrete sensors is rather limited to some chosen cross-sections or segments of flowline, but cannot extend to full-length monitoring. Other current monitoring methods include flow
measurements at the beginning and end of the pipeline, offering an indication of the presence of a leak, but limited information on its location.
REFERENCES
INAUDI, D., GLISIC, B. Long-Range Pipeline Monitoring By Distributed Fiber Optic Sensing, 6th International Pipeline Conference September 25 - 29, 2006, Calgary, Alberta, Canada'(2006) INAUDI, D., GLISIC, B. Fiber Optic Sensing for Innovative Oil & Gas Production and Transport Systems, 18th International Conference on Optical Fiber Sensors, October 23-27, Cancun, Mexico'(2006) NIKLES, M. et al. Leakage detection using fiber optics distributed temperature monitoring, 11th SPIE's Annual International Symposium on Smart Structures and Materials (2004)
1.1 Oil Leakage Simulation To simulate an oil leakage form a buried pipeline, a test has been performed at the premises of Praoil in Italy, in cooperation with Electronic News. The optical fiber cable, containing two optical fibers, was buried in a small layer of sand at approximately 1.5 m below ground. Successively, a polyethylene pipe was placed above the cable, in a serpentine, and provided with taps allowing a controlled injection of water in the ground. Several taps were installed with varying horizontal and vertical distances to the sensing cable. Each tap was also instrumented with a volume meter to asses the leak volume and capacity. The temperature of the injected water could also be adjusted to simulate different operational conditions. 1.2. Gas Leakage Simulation To evaluate the suitability of a distributed temperature sensing system for gas leakage detection, an experiment was performed on a real gas pipeline in Italy. A fiber optic temperature sensing cable was installed on the top of a 10 gas pipeline over a length of 500m. This installation was part of a larger test on measuring strain induced in the pipeline by a landslide. During the putting the sensors in place and burring of the pipe, an empty plastic tube was installed connecting the pipeline surface to the open air, 50 m far from the beginning of the instrumented zone. This tube was used to simulate a leakage of gas.

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