Blockage Detection in Gas Pipelines to Prevent Failure of Transmission Line

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.