2009 International Conference on Energy and Environment Technology

Research on Pipeline Leak Detection Based on Hilbert-Huang Transform

Zhang Shuqing, Gao Tianye, Han Xu, Jia Jian Wang Zhongdong
Department of Electronic Engineering Qinhuangdao Branch of Daqing Petroleum Institute,
Yanshan University Qinhuangdao, China,
Qinghuangdao, China dqpiwzd39@126.com
zhshq-yd@163.com

Abstract—A new time-frequency analysis method of Hilbert-
Huang Transform applied in Pipeline leak detection is
proposed. Choosing the negative pressure wave signal from
dynamic pressure transmitter as research object, the dynamic
pressure signal is decomposed by the empirical mode
decomposition, and we obtain the proper mode functions that
satisfy the condition. The propagation time difference is
detected accurately. Then, negative pressure wave signals are
processed by Hilbert-Huang transformation method, so as to
realize the accurate location of pipeline leak point. The results
of experiment show that the new approach can improve the
accuracy of detection and location of pipeline leak point.
Keywords- negative; pressure wave; leak detection; dynamic
pressure signal; Hilbert-Huang Transform
pressure transmitter instead of conventional pressure
transmitter we detect the transient pressure signals, which
can eliminate effects brought by static pressure. So this
technology can achieve leak detection and location with a
higher accuracy [4].
B. The Principle of Detection
Assume that the length of pipeline is L , the position of
leak point is X , the propagation times from leak point to the
upstream and downstream regions are t1 and t 2
respectively, the propagation velocity of pressure wave is v ,
the propagation velocity of natural gas is u and the time
difference between t1 and t 2 is Δt , as shown in Fig.1 [5].

I. INTRODUCTION
With the prolonging of pipeline and the damage by
natural and artificial causes, for example corrosion and t1
abrasion, pipeline accidents occurred frequently. Pipeline Δt
leak causes not only energy wasting and economic loss, but t2
also environmental pollution. Therefore, the technology of
leak detection and location of pipeline is more significant. At
present, there are many ways to detect pipeline leak, in
which negative wave method is becoming more of a concern
due to the advantage of simple principle, low cost and x
maintenance convenience [1,2]. X L
During the process of pipeline leak detection, local
Figure 1. The principle of location
environment is so complex that leak signal is affected by
noise easily. Because both measured and interference signals It is clear from Fig.1 that:
are non-stationary signals, it is difficult to eliminate noise by
the direct filtering to measured data. The new approach
based on Hilbert-Huang transform is adopted to deal with ­ X
negative pressure wave signals and the accurate location of ° t1 = v − u
pipeline leak point is realized. °
° L− X
II. THE PRINCIPLE OF DETECTION AND LOCATION ®t2 = (1)
° v+u
A. The Detection Method Dased on Dynamic Dressure ° t1 − t2 = Δt
Dransmitter °
The conventional leak detection methods based on ¯
negative pressure wave detect only the absolutely pressure Namely:
signal, which reflects pressure condition of pipeline.
However, for the slow leak, the negative pressure wave
signals received by conventional pressure transmitter are X L− X
Δt = − (2)
very faint, and have low signal-to-noise ratio. Using dynamic v−u v+u
Thanks the national natural science foundation of China (50775198,
60672015) and the youth innovation foundation from the Petroleum natural
gas head company of China (07E1011).

978-0-7695-3819-8/09 $26.00 © 2009 IEEE 500

DOI 10.1109/ICEET.2009.587

Authorized licensed use limited to: Jesus Esquivel. Downloaded on March 17,2010 at 09:19:11 EDT from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
 On rearrangement, the position of leak point is given by: have at most one difference; secondly, the mean value of
envelop has to be zero.
1 The obtained signals form pipeline leak detection are
X= [ L(v − u ) + Δt (v 2 − u 2 )] (3) usually so complex that they not always satisfy the
2v conditions of IMF. Therefore, we make hypotheses as
follow: any signal is composed of several different intrinsic
Due to u much less than v , u can be ignored. So X modes, each of which can be linear or non-linear, and there
can be expressed in the form: are the same number of extreme points and zero points in
local area. At any time, one signal obtains many intrinsic
mode signals, which will form the componential signal if
1
X= ( L + v ⋅ Δt ) (4) some of intrinsic modes overlap for each other.
2 Taking time series x (t ) as example, the general process
of EMD is expatiated as follow:
From Eq.4, the propagation velocity of pressure wave v First of all, using cubic interpolation method we can
and the time difference Δt are the key parameters to obtain the maximum xmax (t ) and minimum xmin (t ) of
improve the sensitivity and the precision in leak detection.
envelope, and the instantaneous average m(t ) can be
III. THE METHOD OF HILBERT-HUANG TRANSFORM expressed as:
A. Hilbert Transform
1
Let x(t ) be the continuous signal, its Hilbert Transform m(t ) = [ xmax (t ) + xmin (t )] (8)
2
y (t ) can be defined that [6]:
Thus, we get a new series h(t ) by subtracting m(t )
1 +∞ x(τ ) from x (t ) , and then judge whether h(t ) satisfy the
y (t ) =
π ³−∞ t −τ
dτ (5)
condition. If not, regard h(t ) as an original signal and
repeat the step. Using this method, we obtain the first IMF
x(t ) and y (t ) form a pair of conjugate complex number, component, as c1 (t ) , and also a residual data r1 (t ) that
by which the analytic signal can be obtained:
does not include high-frequency component by subtracting
zi (t ) = x(t ) + iy (t ) = ai (t )eiθ (t ) (6)
c1 (t ) from x(t ) . Subsequently, use r1 (t ) as a new series,
and repeat all of steps above until the residual term rn (t ) is
Where ai (t ) is the instantaneous amplitude, a monotone function.
Finally, we get several IMF components, namely
ai (t ) = x(t ) 2 + y (t ) 2 ; θi (t ) is the instantaneous phase, c1 (t ) , c2 (t ) , c3 (t ) ... cn (t ) , and a residual term rn (t ) .
ª y (t ) º Therefore the original signal can be expressed in the form:
θi (t ) = arctan « ».
¬ x(t ) ¼ n
The instantaneous frequency can be expressed as: x(t ) = ¦ ci (t ) + rn (t ) (9)
i =1

1 dθi (t )
ωi (t ) =
2π dt
It is a single value function of time, and there is a unique
instantaneous frequency at any time. In order to make the
instantaneous frequency meaningful, the time series must be
one-component. The intrinsic mode functions (IMF) series
decomposed by empirical mode decomposition (EMD) can
meet the requirement.
B. Empirical Mode Decomposition Algorithm
EMD [7] decomposes the signals into a finite number of
IMF, which should satisfy two conditions: firstly, the
number of extreme points and zero points should be equal or
(7)
IV. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS AND ANALYSIS
The length of pipeline is 20000m in this experiment. Two
dynamic pressure transmitters are installed in the first and
terminal station respectively. We choose the position, where
the distance to first station is 12500m, to simulate the leak
condition. The output current of dynamic pressure
transmitter is range 4mA to 20mA, and a resistance of 300ȍ
is chosen. So we can detect the amplitude of pressure signal
is range from 1.2V to 6V, and the center voltage is 4V. The
pressure signals detected by dynamic pressure transmitters
are showed in Fig.2 and Fig.3.
Make EMD on pressure signals, which are detected by
dynamic pressure transmitters of first and terminal stations,
as shown in Fig.4 and Fig.5. The results of decomposition

501

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suggest that the noise is mainly contained in the first IMF Empirical Mode Decomposition

res . im f10 im f9 im f8 im f7 im f6 im f5 im f4 im f3 im f2 im f1s ignal

component and other components are much smoother.
We choose the IMF3 of pressure signal detected by first
station and the IMF4 of pressure signal detected by terminal
station as the components used in leak detection, because of
they have the obvious catastrophe points. Then making
Hilbert Transform on them, we can obtain the instantaneous
amplitude. Furthermore, the time difference can be
determined, as shown in Fig.6 and Fig.7.

4.3

4.2

4.1

4
Voltage/V

3.9

3.8

3.7 Figure 4. IMF of signal detected by first station

3.6
Empirical Mode Decomposition
re s .im f 1 1im f 1 0 im f 9 im f 8 im f 7 im f6 im f 5 im f 4 im f 3 im f2 im f1s ig n a l

3.5
0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200 1400 1600 1800 2000
Time/0.01s

Figure 2. The signal detected by first station dynamic pressure transmitter

4.3

4.2

4.1

4
Voltage/V

3.9

3.8

3.7

3.6

3.5
0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200 1400 1600 1800 2000
Time/0.01s

Figure 5. IMF of signal detected by terminal station

Figure 3. The signal detected by terminal station dynamic pressure
transmitter

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 0.16 TABLE I. THE RESULTS OF SIMULATION

Distance(m) Absolute error(m) relative error(%)

0.14
12430 70 0.56
12390 110 0.88
0.12 12360 140 1.12
Ins tantaneous A m plitude/V

12580 80 0.64
0.1 12600 100 0.80
12440 60 0.48
0.08
12380 120 0.96
12560 60 0.48
12410 90 0.72
0.06
12630 130 1.04

0.04
From above analysis, the method based on HHT, which
is applied to detecting the catastrophe point of dynamic
0.02 pressure signal, can improve the accuracy of measurement
significantly. Finally achieve the purpose of precise location
0
0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200 1400 1600 1800 2000 of leak point.
Time/0.01s
V. CONCLUSION
By using dynamic pressure transmitter to detect the
Figure 6. The instantaneous amplitude of IMF3
negative pressure wave signal, this paper proposes a
localization method based on HHT, which decompose
signals with EMD. The experimental results show that this
0.25
method can detect the pressure change accurately, and
realize the precise location.
0.2 REFERENCES
Instantaneous Am plitude/V

[1] Xiao Zhiguang, Wu Siyue, and Xue Xiaohong, “Analysis and

0.15 Application of the Leak Detection Technology in Pipeline,” Pipeline
Technology and Equipment, No. 2, pp. 23-26, 2009
[2] Jin Shijiu, Tang Xiujia, Wang Lining, and Li Jian, “Detection and
0.1 Location of Leakage In Crude Petroleum Pipeline,” Chinese Journal
of Science Instrument, vol. 18, No. 4, pp. 343-348, Aug 1997
[3] Norden E. Huang, Zheng Shen, and Steven R. Long, “A New View of
Nonlinear Water Waves: The Hilbert Spectrum,” Annual Review of
0.05 Fluid Mechanics, vol. 31, pp. 417-457, 1999
[4] Lin Weiguo, and Zheng Zhishou, “Research on pipeline leak
detection based on dynamic pressure signal,” Chinese Journal of
0 Science Instrument, vol. 47, No. 8, pp. 907-910, Aug 2006
0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200 1400 1600 1800 2000
[5] Li Wei, Chen Xiping, Mao Haijie, and Pan Wei, “Investigation of
Time/0.01s
method for leak detection and allocation of natural gas pipeline,”
Journal of Lan Zhou University of Technology, vol. 29, No. 4, pp. 84-
87, Dec 2003
Figure 7. The instantaneous amplitude of IMF4
[6] Zhang Xiaoli, Zeng Xiangjun, Ma Hongjiang, and Li Zewen, “Power
Grid Faults Location with Traveling Wave Based on Hilbert-Huang
From Fig.6 and Fig.7, the time difference can be Transform,” Automatic of Electric System, vol. 32, No. 8, Apr 2008
calculated, namely Δt = 4.72 s . Then the leak point is [7] Norden E. Huang, “New method for nonlinear and nonstationary
calculated at 12.43km. The relative error is given by: time series analysis: Empirical mode decomposition and Hilbert
spectral analysis,” Proceedings of SPIE - The International Society
for Optical Engineering, vol. 4056, pp. 197-209, 2000
12500 -12430 [8] Balocchi. R, Menicucci. D, Varanini. M, “Empirical Mode
= 0.56% Decomposition to a Approach the Problem of Detecting Sources from
12500 a Reduced Number of Mixtures,” Annual International Conference of
the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology - Proceedings, vol. 3,
In order to verify the location ability of the method based pp. 2443-2446,2003
on HHT, we simulate the leak condition 10 times. The
results are shown in Table 1.

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