Improving leak detection in gas pipelines

In a report in the journal of Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research, scientists say they have developed a new software-based method that finds leaks in oil and gas pipelines even when they’re small, which could help prevent serious incidents and save money for customers and industry.

Gary Atkinson and Miguel Bagajewicz note in their report entitled Leak Detection in Gas Pipelines Using Accurate Hydraulic Models that using pipelines to move oil, gas and even water from one place to another is, for the most part, highly effective. But serious, costly problems arise when pipes break. Existing methods for detecting leaks are limited: hardware-based approaches using special instrumentation are expensive and complicated, and software-based systems don’t model pressure drops in pipelines correctly. This can lead to errors, particularly for gas pipelines.

The researchers developed a method that compares pressure and flow rate measurements from a pipeline, with mathematical models that can accurately predict what the pressure and flow rate should be. Their technique successfully detected small leaks and reduced errors from 21% to 3% when compared to existing software. The researchers estimated that their method would have saved millions of dollars more than other leak detection methods.