Fibre Optic Cable Sensors to upgrade Performance of Pipelines

SciFed Journal of Laser and Optics is an international, online, peer – reviewed, multidisciplinary open access journal that aims in publishing enormous esteemed manuscripts in various forms in the fields of scientific and engineering research including consumer electronics, information technology, science, medicine, industry, law enforcement, entertainment, and the military. Fiber-optic communication using lasers is a key technology in modern communications, allowing services such as the Internet.

Pipelines are one of the best and cheapest modes of transportation of liquid products over long distances from producing to processing and consuming centers. This mode of transportation is also useful for solid products in the form of slurries. Once constructed and operated properly, pipelines carry on uninterrupted flow unless their integrity is disturbed by external actors like leaks, ruptures due to ground settlement or externally applied heavy loads from surface transports. In earlier days, monitoring the performance of pipelines was a difficult task. The means of measurement of the key performance indicators was through pressure, temperature, quantity of flow between two selected locations on the pipeline. With the invention and use of Fibre Optic cables, the pipeline transportation technology has drastically improved. Fibre Optic cable was conceptualized in around 1925 where it was discovered that light waves transmitted through optical fibres made from glass particles, can carry huge amount of data like temperature, pressure, volume of flow, density of the fluid over long distance without loss of quality .

The DTS system. A distributed Temperature Sensor is a device with a linear measurement capability over the entire pipeline length and is sensitive to the measurement at any of its points. The sensors consist of a single optical fiber sensitive over its entire length. A single distributed fiber optic sensor could, therefore, perform the functions of large number of specific point sensors. The low fiber attenuation enables monitoring over long distances up to 25 to 40 km lengths which represent adequate number of measuring points. This makes the distributed sensing technique a very attractive solution when monitoring of a large number of locations is required.

The paper serves as a guideline for upgrading old pipelines that needs to be decommissioned. With marginal capital investment, their lives can be extended and thus incurring extra cost for laying new pipelines in replacement can be avoided or deferred. With vast technological improvement in telecommunication and telecontrol , product movement through pipeline , are becoming cheaper and competitive . No general rule can be framed but case-by-case study and appropriate action can be taken to economize and reduce pipeline transportation costs.

The above Article originally got published at SciFed Journal of Laser and Optics in 2017, to have a glance please visit: Click Here