Blockage Detection in Gas Pipelines to Prevent Failure of Transmission Line
Publication: Journal of Pipeline Systems Engineering and Practice
Volume 12, Issue 3
Abstract
Gas pipelines are an integral part of each stage across several industries, including steel, oil, chemical, and pharmaceutics. Deposit of sediments causes blockages in pipelines, which leads to abrupt failure and functional impairment. Failure of gas pipelines due to blockages is a serious threat as it is catastrophic in terms of safety and economic loss. Hence, it is imperative for preventive maintenance to quantitatively monitor the gas pipelines for blockage conditions. Industries will benefit from information regarding the position and extent of blockage in gas pipelines. This paper demonstrates a novel technique that can be used in pipelines to efficiently identify and measure the extent of blockages. The methodology is based on the idea of differential damping rate, i.e., the location with high sediment deposit dampens sound waves at a higher rate than the pipe locations with low deposits. The disturbance created by a point impact on pipelines with deposit and without deposit differs due to the damping effect of the deposit on the vibration. In this methodology, the damping coefficient is measured for various points circumferentially, and then all the values are compared to each other. The technique is validated with an accuracy of 96.5% with the help of physical measurements of sediment level in the test pipe.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
Data Availability Statement
Some or all data, models, or code that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
References
Balaskó, M., E. Sváb, A. Kuba, Z. Kiss, L. Rodek, and A. Nagy. 2005. “Pipe corrosion and deposit study using neutron- and gamma-radiation sources.” Nucl. Instrum. Methods Phys. Res., Sect. A 542 (1–3): 302–308. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nima.2005.01.153.
Bu, N., N. Ueno, and O. Fukuda. 2010. “Blockage detection in pipelines using a flexible piezoelectric film sensor.” SICE J. Control Meas. Syst. Integr. 3 (1): 59–65. https://doi.org/10.9746/jcmsi.3.59.
Carino, N. J. 2015. “Impact echo: The fundamentals.” In Proc., Int. Symp. on Non-Destructive Testing in Civil Engineering. Berlin: Technical Univ. of Berlin.
Carino, N. J., M. Sansalone, and N. N. Hsu. 1986. “Flaw detection in concrete by frequency spectrum analysis of impact-echo waveforms.” In International advances in nondestructive testing. 12th ed., 117–146. New York: Gordon & Breach Science Publishers.
Gooch, R. M., T. A. Clarke, and T. J. Ellis. 1996. “A semi-autonomous sewer surveillance and inspection vehicle.” In Proc., Conf. on Intelligent Vehicles. New York: IEEE.
Hay, T. R., and J. L. Rose. 2003. “Fouling detection in the food industry using ultrasonic guided waves.” Food Control 14 (7): 481–488. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0956-7135(02)00107-X.
Kester, W. 2009. What the Nyquist criterion means to your sampled data system design, 1–12. Norwood, MA: Analog Devices.
Kwon, Y.-S., and B.-J. Yi. 2012. “Design and motion planning of a two-module collaborative indoor pipeline inspection robot.” IEEE Trans. Rob. 28 (3): 681–696. https://doi.org/10.1109/TRO.2012.2183049.
Loureiro Silva, L., P. C. C. Monteiro, J. L. A. Vidal, and T. A. Netto. 2014. “Acoustic reflectometry for blockage detection in pipeline.” In Vol. 45462 of Proc., Int. Conf. on Offshore Mechanics and Arctic Engineering. New York: ASME.
Ma, J., M. J. S. Lowe, and F. Simonetti. 2007. “Feasibility study of sludge and blockage detection inside pipes using guided torsional waves.” Meas. Sci. Technol. 18 (8): 2629. https://doi.org/10.1088/0957-0233/18/8/039.
Mousa, E. A., A. Babich, and D. Senk. 2014. “Utilization of coke oven gas and converter gas in the direct reduction of lump iron ore.” Metall. Mater. Trans. B 45 (2): 617–628. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11663-013-9978-6.
Ren, L., T. Jiang, Z.-G. Jia, D.-S. Li, C.-L. Yuan, and H.-N. Li. 2018. “Pipeline corrosion and leakage monitoring based on the distributed optical fiber sensing technology.” Measurement 122 (Jul): 57–65. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.measurement.2018.03.018.
Sansalone, M., and N. J. Carino. 1986. Impact-echo: A method for flaw detection in concrete using transient stress waves. Washington, DC: US Dept. of Commerce, National Bureau of Standards, Center for Building Technology, Structures Div.
Skrinsky, J., J. Veres, V. Peer, P. Friedel, J. Travnickova, and A. Dalecka. 2016. “Explosion parameters of coke oven gas in explosion chamber.” Chem. Eng. Trans. 53 (Jan): 7–12. https://doi.org/10.3303/CET1653002.
Yang, Z., W. Ding, Y. Zhang, X. Lu, Y. Zhang, and P. Shen. 2010. “Catalytic partial oxidation of coke oven gas to syngas in an oxygen permeation membrane reactor combined with NiO/MgO catalyst.” Int. J. Hydrogen Energy 35 (12): 6239–6247. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhydene.2009.07.103.
Zhao, W., T. Zhang, Y. Wang, J. Qiao, and Z. Wang. 2018. “Corrosion failure mechanism of associated gas transmission pipeline.” Materials (Basel) 11 (10): 1935. https://doi.org/10.3390/ma11101935.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Copyright
© 2021 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Nov 3, 2020
Accepted: Mar 1, 2021
Published online: Jun 1, 2021
Published in print: Aug 1, 2021
Discussion open until: Nov 1, 2021
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.