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PIPELINE MONITORING SYSTEMS
The management of pipelines presents challenges that are quite unique. Their long length, high value, high risk and often difficult
access conditions, require continuous monitoring and an optimization of the maintenance interventions. The main concern for pipeline
owners comes from possible leakages that can have a severe impact on the environment and put the pipeline out of service for
repair. Leakages can have different causes, including excessive deformations caused by earthquakes, landslides or collisions with
ship anchors, corrosion, wear, material flaws or even intentional damaging.
Leakages can be detected and localized using distributed
fiber optic temperature sensors. Fluid pipelines generate
an hot-spot at the location of the leak, while gas pipelines
generate a cold-spot due to the gas pressure relaxation.
These localized thermal anomalies can be detected by a
distributed measurement with good spatial, time and temperature
resolution such as the DiTeSt system.
Furthermore, it is often possible to detect damage before a
critical state is reached. SMARTEC systems are ideally
suited for these tasks. Measuring distributed strain it is
possible to determine the increased stresses due to external
actions such as landslides and earthquakes or to internal
causes such as a reduction of cross-section due to
corrosion and wear. Finally, distributed temperature and
strain monitoring can detect third party intrusion before
any damage is done to the pipeline
The DiTeSt system can be used for distributed measurements of both strain and temperature over extremely long distances,
limiting the number of instruments that are necessary to monitor a long pipeline.
System components
SMARTEC’s pipeline monitoring systems are based on a combination of sensing cables, measurement instruments and data processing software. Different cables are available for temperature sensing (normal and high temperatures), strain sensing and combined strain and temperature sensing. The cables are designed to be installed on the pipeline surface or in its proximity, as depicted in the figure. The DiTeSt measurement instruments can measure sensors with a length of up to 2 x 30 km (upstream and downstream). Using the DiTeSt Range Extension modules it is possible to monitor up to 250 km from a single instrument. Specialized software packages are available for detecting leakages from gas, fluids and multiphase pipelines, to display and publish the measurement results in an user-friendly interface and to generate warnings when abnormal conditions are detected.
Distributed Fiber Optic Sensors
Temperature Profiling
Axial and Bending Strain Measurement
Leakage Detection
Third-party Intrusion Detection
Long Range: up to 250 km
High Resolution
Excellent Long-term Stability
Multiple Sensing Cable Designs
Intrinsically Explosion Safe
Insensitive to EM-fields and Corrosion
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