Pipeline networks are constructed with the aim of transporting different chemical and petrochemical products, in liquid and/or gas phase conditions. Despite the effectiveness of pipeline transportation, unexpected and sudden leak events can cause unnecessary waste of limited resources, serious environmental pollution problems, as well as property loss and danger to life. Consequently, the operational reliability of pipelines should be improved, minimizing the risk of leakages.

The object of this project is the development of a low cost and low energy wireless sensor system for the immediate detection of leaks in metallic piping systems for the transportation of liquid and gaseous petroleum products in a noisy industrial environment. The method which is followed is based on processing the changes monitored in the acoustic spectrum of sound signals appearing in the pipeline walls due to a leakage effect and aims at minimal interference with the piping system. Low frequencies are used to detect and characterize leakage (position and size estimation) in order to increase the range of sensors and thus to reduce cost. The method focuses only on the sounds produced during the leakage while algorithms with low computational requirements and intermittent processing are applied with the potential to further reduce energy consumption without deteriorating leakage detection reliability in a noisy environment.

Real experimental results from the industrial environment of the Hellenic Petroleum company located in Thessaloniki prove the efficiency of the proposed approach and the developed system in detecting leaks without false alarms and with an error in finding leak position <5%.

This project was funded by the European Regional Development Fund of the European Union and Greek National Funds through the Operational Program Competitiveness, Entrepreneurship, and Innovation, under the name “Research–Create–Innovate” under Project T1EDK-00791.