Abstract
This paper describes an acoustic method to monitor the state of the inside of gas pipeline based on the acoustic propagation in the pipelie. The proposed method can monitor the inside of the pipeline from only one terminal of the pipeline.
Echoes of the sound in the pipeline occur at the structural changes like as the terminal end, the partial plugging and the connecting branches, when white noise sound is fed at the open terminal. The location and the degree of the structural changes can be detected from the delay time and amplitude of the echoes.
The proposed method can monitor the following items:
1. State of the other end of a single pipe (Closed or Open) and length of the pipe.
2. Location and degree of partial plugging in a single pipe.
3. Location of partial plugging and, branches and the length of the branches.
Experiments carried out by a laboratory pipe and real field pipeline demonstrated the validity of the method and the monitoring accuracy was reasonably good.
