Discrete Blockage Detection in Pipelines Using the Frequency Response Diagram: Numerical Study

Abstract

This paper proposes the use of fluid transients as a noninvasive technique for locating blockages in transmission pipelines. By extracting the behavior of the system in the form of a frequency response diagram, discrete blockages within the pipeline were shown to induce an oscillatory pattern on the peaks of this response diagram. This pattern can be related to the location and size of the blockage. A simple analytical expression that can be used to detect, locate, and size discrete blockages is presented, and is shown able to cater for multiple blockages existing simultaneously within the system. The structure of the expression suggests that the proposed technique can be extended to situations where system parameters may not be known to a high accuracy and also to more complex network scenarios, although future studies may be required to verify these possibilities.