Accuracy of Distributed Optical Fiber Temperature Sensing for Use in Leak Detection of Subsea Pipelines
Publication: Journal of Pipeline Systems Engineering and Practice
Volume 6, Issue 2
Abstract
Accurate and rapid detection of leaks is important for subsea oil pipelines to minimize environmental risks and operational/repair costs. Temperature-sensing optical fiber cables can provide economic, near real-time sensing of leaks in subsea oil pipeline networks. By employing optical time domain reflectometry and detecting the Brillouin scattered components from a laser source, the temperature gradients can be detected at any location along an optical fiber cable attached to the oil pipeline. The feasibility of such technology has been established in the literature along with a case study on a land-based pipeline. In this paper the accuracy of an optical fiber-based temperature sensing system is investigated. A mathematical model that simulates the process of temperature sensing is developed and the results are presented. An experimental investigation is carried out with two different laboratory setups to establish the spatial resolution and accuracy of the optical fiber cable detection system, and the experimental results are compared with predictions from the theoretical model. Based on these comparisons it has been established that the optical fiber cable detection system is capable of providing an accurate and rapid assessment of the location of a leak along a subsea pipeline. Furthermore, the sensing system can be used to give an indication of the scale of the oil leak using the temperature gradients detected by the system.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
Acknowledgments
The first author would like to acknowledge the support received under the UROP program from the Centre for Smart Infrastructure and Construction (CSIC) at the Department of Engineering, University of Cambridge. He would also like to thank Mr. Chang Ye Gue for his helpful suggestions.
References
Bowley, R., and Sánchez, M. (1999). Introductory statistical mechanics, 2nd Ed., Clarendon Press, Oxford, U.K.
Chiao, R. Y., Townes, C. H., and Stoicheff, B. P. (1964). “Stimulated Brillouin scattering and coherent generation of intense hypersonic waves.” Phys. Rev. Lett., 12(21), 592–595.
Excel. (2009). Excel SWA fiber-optic cable data sheet, Mayflex, Birmingham, U.K., 〈http://www.mayflex.com/_assets/files/Exc_LT_fiber_SWA_SM_OS1_OS2.pdf〉 (Apr. 03, 2012).
Mohamad, H. (2008). “Distributed optical fiber strain sensing of geotechnical structures.” Ph.D. thesis, Univ. of Cambridge, U.K.
Mohitpour, M. (2003). Pipeline design and construction: A practical approach, ASME Press, New York.
Nikles, M., et al. (2004). “Leakage detection using fiber optics distributed temperature monitoring.” Proc., 11th SPIE Annual Int. Symp. on Smart Structures and Materials, San Diego, 18–25.
Omnisens SA. (2009). User manual DITESTTM data viewer, Morges, Switzerland.
Selker, J. S., et al. (2006). “Distributed fiber-optic temperature sensing for hydrologic systems.” Water Resour. Res., 42(12), W12202.
Walk, T., and Fringe, J. (2010). “Fiber optic sensing can help reduce third-party threats.” Oil Gas J., in press.
Wang, J., Haigh, S. K., Forrest, G., and Thusyanthan, I. T. (2012). “Mobilization distance for upheaval bucklingo shallowly buried pipelines.” J. Pipeline Syst. Eng. Pract., 106–114.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Pipeline Systems Engineering and Practice
Volume 6 • Issue 2 • May 2015
Copyright
© 2014 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Nov 4, 2013
Accepted: Aug 25, 2014
Published online: Sep 25, 2014
Discussion open until: Feb 25, 2015
Published in print: May 1, 2015
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Download citation
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.