Quantitative risk assessment & leak detection criteria for a subsea oil export pipeline

A quantitative risk assessment （QRA） based on leak detection criteria （LDC） for the design of a proposed subsea oil export pipeline is presented in this paper. The objective of this QRA/LDC study was to determine if current leak detection methodologies were sufficient, based on QRA results, while excluding the use of statistical leak detection; if not, an appropriate LDC for the leak detection system would need to be established. The famous UK PARLOC database was used for the calculation of pipeline failure rates, and the software POSVCM from MMS was used for oil spill simulations. QRA results revealed that the installation of a statistically based leak detection system （LDS） can significantly reduce time to leak detection, thereby mitigating the consequences of leakage. A sound LDC has been defined based on QRA study results and comments from various LDS vendors to assist the emergency response team （ERT） to quickly identify and locate leakage and employ the most effective measures to contain damage.

Pipeline Potential Leak Detection Technologies: Assessment and Perspective in the Nigeria Niger Delta Region

This paper examines the advances in pipeline third party encroachment alert systems and leak control methods in the oil/gas industry. It also highlights the extent of spill/pollution issues in the Niger Delta region due to intended/unin- tended damages and suggests a possible method of control. It is believed that the best option to avoid pollution due to pipeline failure is to ensure that hydrocarbon does not exit from the pipeline. With the different methods considered in this review, acoustic monitoring of change in the operational sound generated from a given pipeline section is suggested to be practicable to identifying sound abnormalities of third party encroachments. One established challenge of the acoustic system for buried pipelines protection is attenuation of acoustic transmission. An attempt to check the performance of an acoustic transmission on steel pipelines submerged in water points to a similar research on plastic water pipelines that attenuation is small compared with pipe buried in soil. Fortunately, Niger Delta of Nigeria is made of wetland, swamps and shallow water and could therefore offer an opportunity to deploy acoustic system for the safety of pipelines against third party attacks in this region. However, the numerous configuration and quantity of oil installation in this region imply that cost of application will be enormous. It is therefore suggested that a combination of impressed alternating cycle current (IACC) which traces encroachment on the pipeline coating and an acoustic system be used to manage intended and unintended pipeline potential damages. The IACC should be used for flow lines and other short distance delivery lines within the oilfield, while the relatively large diameter and long length delivery, trunk and transmission lines should be considered for acoustic protection. It is, however, noted that further efforts are required to reduce cost and improve effectiveness of these systems.

Research on Oil Pipeline Leak Detection and Location system

Because pipeline has large pipe diameter, large throughout and high pressure, once pipeline leakage accident happens, the damage is quite serious. In addition, pipeline leakage accident caused by man-made drilling oil stolen every year results in huge economic losses on oilfield. Therefore, a real-time and accurate pipeline leak detection and location system not only can effectively decrease leakage loss and reduce the waste of manpower and material resources in patrolling work, but also is conductive to the management of oil pipeline and improvement of economic efficiency of enterprise. The paper determines leak detection and location project giving priority to negative pressure wave and supplemented by flow parameter analysis. The method not only can judge the accidence of leakage timely and accurately, but also can effectively avoid leakage false alarm caused by start or stop pumps in pipeline.

Application of an Improved ISODATA Method to Pipeline Leak Detection

Increasingly serious leak problem in pipeline transportation has not only affected the operation of pipelines but also caused loss of precious resource and environmental damage. Based on the analysis of the occurrence of negative pressure waves and the unsupervised learning of pattern recognition, the Interactive Self-organizing Data Analysis Technique Algorithm （ISODATA） method was used to classify the negative pressure waves and then the states of pipelines could be determined. K L transformation was used to eliminate the correlativity of feature parameters and to reduce the dimensionality of feature vector space to speed up calculation. Experimental results validated the accuracy and practical value of this method.

SDH-FCOS:An Efficient Neural Network for Defect Detection in Urban Underground Pipelines

Urban underground pipelines are an important infrastructure in cities,and timely investigation of problems in underground pipelines can help ensure the normal operation of cities.Owing to the growing demand for defect detection in urban underground pipelines,this study developed an improved defect detection method for urban underground pipelines based on fully convolutional one-stage object detector(FCOS),called spatial pyramid pooling-fast(SPPF)feature fusion and dual detection heads based on FCOS(SDH-FCOS)model.This study improved the feature fusion component of the model network based on FCOS,introduced an SPPF network structure behind the last output feature layer of the backbone network,fused the local and global features,added a top-down path to accelerate the circulation of shallowinformation,and enriched the semantic information acquired by shallow features.The ability of the model to detect objects with multiple morphologies was strengthened by introducing dual detection heads.The experimental results using an open dataset of underground pipes show that the proposed SDH-FCOS model can recognize underground pipe defects more accurately;the average accuracy was improved by 2.7% compared with the original FCOS model,reducing the leakage rate to a large extent and achieving real-time detection.Also,our model achieved a good trade-off between accuracy and speed compared with other mainstream methods.This proved the effectiveness of the proposed model.

A Novel Parameter-Optimized Recurrent Attention Network for Pipeline Leakage Detection

Accurate detection of pipeline leakage is essential to maintain the safety of pipeline transportation.Recently,deep learning(DL)has emerged as a promising tool for pipeline leakage detection(PLD).However,most existing DL methods have difficulty in achieving good performance in identifying leakage types due to the complex time dynamics of pipeline data.On the other hand,the initial parameter selection in the detection model is generally random,which may lead to unstable recognition performance.For this reason,a hybrid DL framework referred to as parameter-optimized recurrent attention network(PRAN)is presented in this paper to improve the accuracy of PLD.First,a parameter-optimized long short-term memory(LSTM)network is introduced to extract effective and robust features,which exploits a particle swarm optimization(PSO)algorithm with cross-entropy fitness function to search for globally optimal parameters.With this framework,the learning representation capability of the model is improved and the convergence rate is accelerated.Moreover,an anomaly-attention mechanism(AM)is proposed to discover class discriminative information by weighting the hidden states,which contributes to amplifying the normalabnormal distinguishable discrepancy,further improving the accuracy of PLD.After that,the proposed PRAN not only implements the adaptive optimization of network parameters,but also enlarges the contribution of normal-abnormal discrepancy,thereby overcoming the drawbacks of instability and poor generalization.Finally,the experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness and superiority of the proposed PRAN for PLD.

Detecting the backfill pipeline blockage and leakage through an LSTM-based deep learning model

Detecting a pipeline's abnormal status,which is typically a blockage and leakage accident,is important for the continuity and safety of mine backfill.The pipeline system for gravity-transport high-density backfill(GHB)is complex.Specifically designed,efficient,and accurate abnormal pipeline detection methods for GHB are rare.This work presents a long short-term memory-based deep learning(LSTM-DL)model for GHB pipeline blockage and leakage diagnosis.First,an industrial pipeline monitoring system was introduced using pressure and flow sensors.Second,blockage and leakage field experiments were designed to solve the problem of negative sample deficiency.The pipeline's statistical characteristics with different working statuses were analyzed to show their complexity.Third,the architecture of the LSTM-DL model was elaborated on and evaluated.Finally,the LSTM-DL model was compared with state-of-the-art(SOTA)learning algorithms.The results show that the backfilling cycle comprises multiple working phases and is intermittent.Although pressure and flow signals fluctuate stably in a normal cycle,their values are diverse in different cycles.Plugging causes a sudden change in interval signal features;leakage results in long variation duration and a wide fluctuation range.Among the SOTA models,the LSTM-DL model has the highest detection accuracy of98.31%for all states and the lowest misjudgment or false positive rate of 3.21%for blockage and leakage states.The proposed model can accurately recognize various pipeline statuses of complex GHB systems.

Research on Leak Location Method of Water Supply Pipeline Based on MVMD

At present,the leakage rate of the water distribution network in China is still high,and the waste of water resources caused by water distribution network leakage is quite serious every year.Therefore,the location of pipeline leakage is of great significance for saving water resources and reducing economic losses.Acoustic emission technology is the most widely used pipeline leak location technology.The traditional non-stationary random signal de-noising method mainly relies on the estimation of noise parameters,ignoring periodic noise and components unrelated to pipeline leakage.Aiming at the above problems,this paper proposes a leak location method for water supply pipelines based on a multivariate variational mode decomposition algorithm.This method combines the two parameters of the energy loss coefficient and the correlation coefficient between adjacent modes,and adaptively determines the decomposition mode number K according to the characteristics of the signal itself.According to the correlation coefficient,the effective component is selected to reconstruct the signal and the cross-correlation time delay is estimated to determine the location of the pipeline leakage point.The experimental results show that this method has higher accuracy than the cross-correlation method based on VMD and the cross-correlation method based on EMD,and the average relative positioning error is less than 2.2%.

Study on Detection Technique for Pipeline Leakage

Pipeline in te grity defect is a considerable portion in all the defects.Therefore, the study o n detection technique is of great concern to the owners of pipelines. A real ti me monitoring system of pipeline defect is established. For unexpected accidents of pipeline leakage, several methods of signal processing, including wavelet an alysis are utilized. The leakage can be located accurately in time. This system is applied to many long distance pipelines in China, which has made great contri butions to the economy.

Leak Detection in Offshore Pipelines of Conveying Fluid

Leakage from pipelines has caused serious environmental pollution and economic losses. Usually, leak detection can reduce the damage. The paper mainly discusses a hydraulic gradient-based leak detection method. The basic idea is outlined first, followed by a description of a laboratory experiment in a water pipeline. Several pressure curves are established based on different leak locations under the condition of a constant total flow rate. It is demonstrated that the leak of a large leak quantity can be detected reliably by the hydraulic gradient method.

Leak Detection of Gas Pipelines Based on Characteristics of Acoustic Leakage and Interfering Signals

When acoustic method is used in leak detection for natural gas pipelines,the external interferences including operation of compressor and valve,pipeline knocking,etc.,should be distinguished with acoustic leakage signals to improve the accuracy and reduce false alarms.In this paper,the technologies of extracting characteristics of acoustic signals were summarized.The acoustic leakage signals and interfering signals were measured by experiments and the characteristics of time-domain,frequency-domain and time-frequency domain were extracted.The main characteristics of time-domain are mean value,root mean square value,kurtosis,skewness and correlation function,etc.The features in frequency domain were obtained by frequency spectrum analysis and power spectrum density,while time-frequency analysis was accomplished by short time Fourier transform.The results show that the external interferences can be removed effectively by the characteristics of time domain,frequency domain and time-frequency domain.It can be drawn that the acoustic leak detection method can be applied to natural gas pipelines and the characteristics can help reduce false alarms and missing alarms.

Current Trends and Perspectives of Detection and Location for Buried Non-Metallic Pipelines

Buried pipelines are an essential component of the urban infrastructure of modern cities.Traditional buried pipes are mainly made of metal materials.With the development of material science and technology in recent years,non-metallic pipes,such as plastic pipes,ceramic pipes,and concrete pipes,are increasingly taking the place of pipes made from metal in various pipeline networks such as water supply,drainage,heat,industry,oil,and gas.The location technologies for the location of the buried metal pipeline have become mature,but detection and location technologies for the non-metallic pipelines are still developing.In this paper,current trends and future perspectives of detection and location of buried non-metallic pipelines are summarized.Initially,this paper reviews and analyzes electromagnetic induction technologies,electromagnetic wave technologies,and other physics-based technologies.It then focuses on acoustic detection and location technologies,and finally introduces emerging technologies.Then the technical characteristics of each detection and location method have been compared,with their strengths and weaknesses identified.The current trends and future perspectives of each buried non-metallic pipeline detection and location technology have also been defined.Finally,some suggestions for the future development of buried non-metallic pipeline detection and location technologies are provided.

Modeling and analysis of a catastrophic oil spill and vapor cloud explosion in a confined space upon oil pipeline leaking

Oil spill-induced vapor cloud explosions in a confined space can cause catastrophic consequences.In this work,investigation was conducted on the catastrophic pipeline leak,oil spill,and the resulting vapor cloud explosion accident occurring in China in 2013 by modeling analysis,field surveys,and numerical simulations.The total amount of the spilled oil was up to2044.4 m3 due to improper disposal.The long residence time of the oil remaining in a confined space permitted the formation of explosive mixtures and caused the vapor cloud explosion.A numerical model was developed to estimate the consequence of the explosion based on volatilization testing results.The results show that the death-leading zone and the glass-breaking zone could be 18 m and 92 m,respectively,which are consistent with the field investigation.The severity of the explosion is related to the amount of the oil spill,properties of oil,and volatilization time.It is recommended that a comprehensive risk assessment be conducted to analyze the possible consequences upon oil spilling into a confined space.Prompt collection and ventilation measures should be taken immediately after the spill occurs to reduce the time for oil volatilization and prevent the mixture from reaching its explosive limit.

Experimental Study of Oil Pipeline Leak Processes

This work provides a description of oil leak/spill processes from containment such as pipeline. Understanding of such processes is important in order to adequately estimate oil spills and to justify an appropriate emergency action for minimizing spills. Internal diameters of pipes used in the study are within 4 inches. Leaks are simulated from plastic pipeline oil containment fitted with valves. The leak response with time when upstream and downstream valves are operated is studied. Within the internal diameters of pipelines considered in the tests, two ranges of leak characteristics are evident;the “holding range” and the “flowing range” characteristics. The consequences of these characteristics in the oil industry operations have been discussed. The work suggests a spill estimation method based on this knowledge. Furthermore, in order to minimise spill in event of pipeline failure, it is observed that the optimum action on pipeline operational valves, is the immediate closure of upstream valve, followed by the downstream valve, nearly simultaneously. Future work will extend the test to larger diameter pipelines to attempt developing a mathematical approach for estimating limits of the “holding range” characteristics of pipelines given appropriate parameters and in-field test.

Oil/Gas Pipeline Leak Inspection and Repair in Underwater Poor Visibility Conditions: Challenges and Perspectives

Mechanical pressure clamps are examples of innovative tools commonly used in the oil and gas industry for arresting leaks from damaged oil and gas pipelines. However, if leaks result from pipeline rupture, clamps are not usually recommended. It is therefore obvious that inspection of the leaking pipeline is very crucial in deciding the strategy for repair. For subsea pipelines where underwater poor visibility is pronounced, this important aspect of the pipeline repair process becomes difficult to implement. The result is a repair-leak-repair cycle. This challenge is commonly found in repairs of old pipelines in unclear water conditions. Old pipelines and their vulnerability to fractures that often lead to ruptures are discussed. In this paper, the challenges and technologies available for visualisation and examination in such unclear water conditions are discussed. There appears to be a gap in the existing pipeline integrity management system with respect to inspection and repair of pipelines in unclear water conditions. This gap needs to be filled in order to minimise spills and pollution. For pipelines installed in unclear water condition, a perspective is suggested to extend the capability of existing remotely operated vehicles to employ the use of clear laminar water system or a related technique to provide integrity engineers and operators with close visual assess to inspect leaking pipelines and effect adequate repairs. This paper suggests that the use of optical eye as the main tool for examination remains valuable in managing the challenges in underwater pipeline repairs in unclear water condition.

Using acoustic technique to detect leakage in city gas pipelines

For solving the difficult problem of leakage detection in city gas pipelines, a method using acoustic technique based on instantaneous energy (IE) distribution and correlation analysis was proposed. Firstly, the basic theory of leakage detection and location was introduced. Then the physical relationship between instantaneous energy and structural state variation of a system was analyzed theoretically. With HILBERT-HUANG transformation (HHT), the instantaneous energy distribution feature of an unstable acoustic signal was obtained. According to the relative contribution method of the instantaneous energy, the noise in signal was eliminated effectively. Furthermore, in order to judge the leakage, the typical characteristic of the instantaneous energy of signal in the input and output end was discussed using correlative analysis. A number of experiments were carried out to classify the leakage from normal operations, and the results show that the leakages are successfully detected and the average recognition rate reaches 93.3% among three group samples. It is shown that the method using acoustic technique with IED and correlative analysis is effective and it may be referred in other pipelines.

In-Line Inspection of Pipeline Defects Detection Using Ring-Type Laser

Pipeline plays a vital role in transporting fluids like oils, water, and petrochemical substances for longer distances. Based on the materials they carry, prolonged usage may cause the initiation of defects in the pipeline. These defects occur due to the formed salt deposits, chemical reaction happens between the inner surface and the transferring substance, prevailing environmental conditions, etc. These defects, if not identified earlier may lead to significant losses to the industry. In this work, an in-line inspection system utilizes the nondestructive way for analyzing the internal defects in the petrochemical pipeline. This system consists of a pipeline inspection robot having two major units namely the visual inspection unit and the power carrier unit. The visual inspection unit makes use of a ring-type laser diode and the camera. The laser diode serves as a light source for capturing good quality images of inspection. This unit is controlled by the Arduino in the power carrier unit which provides the necessary movement throughout the pipe. The inspected images captured by the camera are further processed with the aid of NI vision assistant software. After applying the processing function parameters provided by this software, the defect location can be clearly visualized with high precision. Three sets of defects are introduced in a Polylactide (PLA) pipe based on its position and angle along the circumference of the pipe. Further, this robot system serves as a real-time interactive image synchronization system for acquiring the inspected images. By comparing the actual and calculated defect size, the error percentage obtained was less than 5%.

Design of motion control system of pipeline detection AUV

A great number of pipelines in China are in unsatisfactory condition and faced with problems of corrosion and cracking,but there are very few approaches for underwater pipeline detection.Pipeline detection autonomous underwater vehicle(PDAUV) is hereby designed to solve these problems when working with advanced optical,acoustical and electrical sensors for underwater pipeline detection.PDAUV is a test bed that not only examines the logical rationality of the program,effectiveness of the hardware architecture,accuracy of the software interface protocol as well as the reliability and stability of the control system but also verifies the effectiveness of the control system in tank experiments and sea trials.The motion control system of PDAUV,including both the hardware and software architectures,is introduced in this work.The software module and information flow of the motion control system of PDAUV and a novel neural network-based control(NNC) are also covered.Besides,a real-time identification method based on neural network is used to realize system identification.The tank experiments and sea trials are carried out to verify the feasibility and capability of PDAUV control system to complete underwater pipeline detection task.

Performing Reliable Early Leak Detection on Storage Tank Terminals:Retrofitting of Existing Facilities and New Buildings

Liquid leak detection may represent a challenge for Oil&Gas operators,as indicated by operational feed-back and independent studies.Despite the availability of many different leak detection technologies,some systems may either fail to detect spills or generate frequent false alarms.In particular,possible soil contamination from pre-existing leaks and pollution carry-over by rain water is difficult to filter out by a leak sensing system.Typical case of false alarms relates to punctual sensors installed upstream the drain valve within the storage tank bunds,monitoring possible presence of leaks in rain water.Besides old soil contamination,other criteria should also be considered when selecting a spill detection technology,such as asset type to be monitored(storage tank,pipeline,…),system accuracy(minimum detectable quantity,ability to localize the leak),detection time,reliability over time,capital,installation and operating costs.The paper will include an evaluation of different external leak detection technologies with respect to the above-mentioned criteria,pointing out the capabilities and limitations of each system.Focus will be placed on reliability of leak monitoring systems in challenging environments.A new generation of digital,reusable sensing cables and probes,as well as the impact of sensitivity for different applications,will be discussed.Since leak sensor installation environment(positioning,adoption of special precautions,…)may significantly affect the system performance,different above ground and underground configurations will be presented,both for new builds and existing facilities.

Development and Application of Methane Leakage Monitoring System for Gas Transmission Pipeline

Oil and gas pipeline transportation,as a relatively safe way of oil and gas transportation,undertakes most of the transportation tasks of crude oil and natural gas.Oil and gas pipeline accidents affect a wide range of consequences.Therefore,the oil and gas pipeline leakage detection is paid more and more attention.In this paper,ultra-low power methane gas sensor is selected to collect methane gas concentration in the air,and wireless network technology is used to build a wireless network sensor system with 4G function.Through the sensor distribution along the pipeline,it can intuitively and accurately judge whether there is a micro-leakage in the pipeline,and understand the diffusion situation after the leakage.The sensor system has high reliability and stability,and has high value of popularization and application.