Leak Detection in Gas Distribution Pipelines using

Acoustic Impact Monitoring

Pugalenthi Karkulali, Himanshu Mishra Abhisek Ukil, Justin Dauwels
Energy Research Institute School of Electrical & Electronics Engineering
Nanyang Technological University Nanyang Technological University
Singapore Singapore
E-mail: kpugalenthi@ntu.edu.sg, hmishra@ntu.edu.sg E-mail: AUkil@ntu.edu.sg, JDAUWELS@ntu.edu.sg

Abstract—Leak detection is vital in oil and gas pipelines, as it II. INTRODUCTION

can cause financial loss and impact the environment, prove fatal Pipelines are used extensively all over the world to
to human life and also affect the effective functioning of domestic transport and distribute natural gas, crude oil, oil products,
household. Acoustic emission test is a non-intrusive technique for water, and easy-flowing products of the like. The gas
leak detection. Leakage in pipes creates vibrations which are distribution network in Singapore consists of pipelines which
transmitted along the pipe walls. These waves can be detected by facilitate the transmission and distribution of piped gas. The
using acoustic sensors or accelerometers installed on the pipe
cumulative length of the network is a little over 2900 km. The
wall for the purpose of analyses. In this work, a simulation study
network operates at three different pressure regimes. The
is carried where the leak location is defined by an Incident
Pressure Field and this source propagates waves in the frequency supply pressure of the high pressure network is approximately
range of about 20 – 200Hz. The results are verified by 40 barg, while that of the medium pressure network is
experimental work by introducing synthetic leak and disturbance approximately 4 or 6.8 barg. The low pressure network, nearest
signals. The Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) was used as the to that supplies the customers is approximately 3 barg, while
mathematical tool to evaluate the dominant peak in the the delivery pressure to customers is around 1 to 2.2 barg[1].
frequency spectrum during an event of leak or disturbance. The In the process of continuous transportation, gas pipeline
experimental results obtained are in accordance with the
leakages cannot be avoided because of the corrosion of pipe
simulated results. The accuracy of determining an event
occurrence can be improved with error less than 5%.
walls, third-party interference, aging of the pipes, so on and so
forth. Therefore, leakage detection and localization is a matter
Keywords—Gas Pipelines;leak detection;Acoustic wave of paramount concern for pipeline operators and researchers
propagation world over. Relevant ongoing studies by Reddy and Payal
(2015) shows software based methods are employed to analyze
I. NOMENCLATURE pressure and velocity variations of low pressure gas
𝑢
⃗ Elastic wave displacement vector distribution pipelines w.r.t different leak diameters and leak
positions [2]. Similarly Campanella and Ai (2015) proposed
𝜆𝐿 , 𝜇 𝐿 Lame Constants optical techniques based on distributed fiber optic sensors to
monitor the temperature change due to Joule-Thomson cooling
𝜌 Material, Fluid Density effects during gas leakage [3]. In addition to these techniques a
p Pressure field low cost Acoustic Emission monitoring technique is proposed
in this paper.
c Sound velocity
Acoustic Emission (AE)[4,5,6] is a type of non-destructive
𝜎 Stress tensor testing technique. Stress-wave arising from energy released
within the material, such as those caused due to crack
𝑛⃗ Unit vector perpendicular to the elastic layer propagation, impacts and fluid flow through confined spaces
⃗
𝑘 Incident wave direction vector are used for detection of leak. These stress waves are
broadcasted throughout the pipe wall and are logged using an
p0 Pressure amplitude acoustic sensor/accelerometer mounted on the pipe’s outer
surface. The effects of the transmitted signal depend on the
f Frequency
material and shape of the pipe structure, the fluid flowing in the
D Outer Diameter of the pipe pipe and environmental conditions such as temperature/internal
fluid pressure.
𝜔 Angular Frequency
Hunaidi and Chu (1999) [7] used microphones and
SPL Sound Pressure Level accelerometers and collected leakage acoustic signals
FFT Fast Fourier Transform propagating in the medium inside plastic water pipes
propagating through the pipe, respectively. Experimental
results performed shows that the amplitude of signals
attenuates with the propagation distance at the speed of

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0.25dB/m. Muggleton, et al. (2002) [8] analyzed the behavior 1 1 𝜕2 𝑝
∇ ( ∇𝑝) − =0 (4)
of vibration and sound waves caused due to leakage of a 𝜌 𝜌𝑐 2 𝜕𝑡 2
pipeline filled with fluid and also generated the signal where c is the sound velocity in m/s and 𝜌 is the fluid
propagation model. They also worked on the attenuation density in kg/m3 .
attributes of the acoustic signals. The boundary conditions for the fluid - elastic layer
In this study, a software based simulation is used to interaction are given by the equations:
investigate the acoustic wave propagation on a hard ductile iron 1 𝜕2 𝑢
⃗
pipe surface with incident pressure excitation at different −𝑛⃗ ∇𝑝 = 𝑛⃗ (5)
𝜌 𝜕𝑡 2
frequencies. The effect of pipe diameter on the magnitude of
the sound pressure level and the resonant peak is analyzed. The 𝜎 ∙ 𝑛⃗ = 𝑝𝑛⃗ (6)
results obtained from simulation are verified with experimental
Where 𝑛⃗ is the unit vector perpendicular to the elastic layer
results. The leak and disturbance occurrence is predicted in
and 𝜎 is the stress tensor in the elastic material. Eq. (5) and Eq.
comparison with the no leak signals. The work is specifically
focused on low pressure gas distribution pipelines wherein the (6) corresponds to Newton’s law and to the continuity of the
transient profile of the leak signals is not significantly visible in normal stress component through the elastic layer. The second
time domain analysis. Other methods as mentioned above are time derivatives in Eqs. (1), (4), (5) and (6) are replaced by the
mostly applicable for high pressure network pipelines such as factor -𝜔2 in the Frequency Domain Study where 𝜔 is the
transmission pipelines. Though the operating pressure of the angular frequency, rad/s.
gas distribution networks is low ( 2kPa ), the flowrate is The above study is simulated using COMSOL Multiphysics
considerably high at about 3600m3/hr wherein this study can be [9] which employs finite element method to numerically
applied for leak detection and localization using any suitable compute the partial differential equations wherein the
algorithmic model such as cross correlation or impulse function continuous function is solved at the discrete elements called
extraction. mesh elements.
III. FEM MODEL B. Model Development
Acoustic waves can be divided into three categories: the Model development involves generation of a 3D geometry
spherical wave, the cylindrical wave and the plane wave. In of the pipe. The surrounding environment is modelled as a
this paper, a spherical wave radiation is considered for the cuboid filled with air. The pipe layer is defined as an elastic
simulation. layer and the pipe material is considered to be ductile iron. The
outer cuboid of the air domain is as shown in Fig.1. The design
A. FEM Model parameters for the geometry are given in Table I.
The equations that describe the propagation of sound in TABLE I ACOUSTIC DOMAIN DATA
fluids are derived from the governing equations of fluid flow,
i.e., the conservation of mass, which is described by the Material Property Value
continuity equation; the conservation of momentum, that is Density 1.19 kg/m3
often referred to as the Navier-Stokes equation; an energy Air
Speed of Sound 343m/s
conservation equation; the model constitutive equations; and an
equation of state to describe the relation between Density 7870 kg/m3
thermodynamic variables. In the classical case of pressure
Ductile Iron Elastic Modulus 200 x 109 Pa
acoustics, which describes most acoustic phenomena
accurately, the flow is assumed lossless and adiabatic. The Pipe Poisson’s Ratio 0.29
viscous effects are neglected, and a linearized isentropic Length of the Pipe 10m
equation of state is used. FEM computations were performed
using acoustics-structure interaction module of COMSOL
Multiphysics.
The model solves two coupled equations. The elastic wave
equation for the displacement field 𝑢
⃗ is solved in the pipe layer.
𝜕2 𝑢
⃗
− 𝑐12 ∇(∇𝑢
⃗ ) + 𝑐22 ∇ × (∇ × 𝑢
⃗)=0 (1)
𝜕𝑡 2

The quantities 𝑐1 and 𝑐2 are defined by

𝜆 +2𝜇
𝑐12 = 𝐿 𝐿 (2)
𝜌
𝜇𝐿
𝑐22 = (3)
𝜌
𝜆𝐿 and 𝜇𝐿 are Lamé constants in Pa and 𝜌 is the material Fig. 1. Acoustic Domain and Pipe Geometry
density in kg/m3 . 𝜌 is independent of position.
Simultaneously, the acoustic wave equation or Helmholtz
equation for the pressure field p is solved in the fluids:

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 IV. SIMULATION RESULTS
The sound waves are longitudinal mechanical waves that
result due to any disturbance such as leakage in pipeline or
vibration due to an external impact. They propagate along the
surface of the pipe in both upstream and downstream side from
the point of incidence. Such disturbances are defined as
incident pressure field for simulation. The incident wave
direction is calculated based on the spherical coordinate
system. The incident wave direction is controlled by two angles
⃗⃗⃗ is resolved in the xy plane as shown in Fig.2.
𝜃 and 𝜑 , the 𝑘

Fig. 3. SPL Vs Frequency graph

Fig. 2. Spherical Co-ordinate system
The radiation boundary conditions are defined as per Table II.
TABLE II. RADIATION BOUNDARY CONDITIONS
Quantity Value Description
Incident wave
⃗
𝑘 (sin 𝜃 cos 𝜑, sin 𝜃 sin 𝜑, cos 𝜃) direction
vector
Pressure
p0 1 Pa
amplitude
The incident pressure excitation is defined to
contact the middle of the pipe at the vector coordinates
(0,D,1). A 10m pipe is considered for the simulation work as
the pipe segment in the test bed is also of 10m length. The
Soud pressure level along the top surface of the pipe is
observed due to the incident pressure field. It is observed that
the sound pressure level resonates around the frequency of
60Hz irrespective of the diameter of the pipe considered for
simulation as shown in Fig.3.This has been verified
experimentally in the later sections of this paper as shown in
Fig.6. It can also be observed that the intensity of the sound
pressure decreases with increase in pipe diameter. This
observed helped to fix on an 150mm diameter pipe for
experimental work. From the simulation results, it can also be
concluded that the selected sensor for experimetal work would
perform better for a lower diameter pipe when compared to
large diameter pipes.
V. EXPERIMENTAL SETUP
The experimental setup consists of a 10m long
ductile Iron Pipe with 150mm outer diameter and 10mm
thickness. The pipeline was operated with a continuous supply
of compressed town gas at 2kPa operating pressure. Synthetic
leaks were generated by opening and closing of leak valves.
The Acoustic sensor is placed in the bottom surface of the pipe
symmetric to the leak valve. The data acquisition is done using
an oscilloscope and a 10 MΩ probe is used for connecting the
output leads of the sensor to the scope for better response in
the low frequency range. A fully shielded, low mass piezo thin
film sensor SDT1-028K vibration sensor from Measurement
Specialties [10] is used to perform the experiments. SDT1-
028K does not require power supply as well as amplifier
which make it suitable in hazardous environments. The block
diagram of the experimental setup is shown in Fig.4
Fig. 4. Block diagram of experimental setup
Three different acoustic signals are analyzed in this work
namely leak signals, no leak signal and disturbance signals.
The disturbance can be due to use of metallic instruments,
pipe knocking etc. Since the signature of the disturbance
signal can be very similar to that of leak signal, it is necessary
to analyze it in order to reduce false alarms during leak
detection.

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Fig. 5. Experimental setup – Leak Valve & Vibration Sensor
VI. RESULTS & DISCUSSIONS
A. Time-Domain Analysis
Recognition of the leak and the disturbance signals is done
by comparing the characteristics of their acoustic signal with
that of no leak signal. The amplitude of the no leak signals
fluctuates around zero. At the instant of leak or disturbance the
signal value changes and then goes back to zero quickly. Fig.6
shows the sensor output signal due to pipe knocking w.r.t no
leak signal. Similarly, Fig.7 shows the sensor output signal
due to leakage w.r.t no leak signal. The leak valve was
gradually opened from 0 – 100% and shut off instantly.
Fig. 6. No Leak signal Vs Pipe Knocking
Fig. 7. No Leak signal Vs Leak signal
The transient profile of the leak signal does not vary
drastically w.r.t the no leak signal owing to the very low
operating pressure of the gas at 2 kPa. Thus spectural analysis
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is carried out to identify the characteristic frequency peaks due
to leak and disturbance signals.
B. Frequency-Domain Analysis
The Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) is applied to the signal
generated due to no leak condition as shown in Fig.8. It is
clearly visible that no characteristic peaks are observed in the
frequency spectrum shown in Fig.7. The minor fluctuations in
the signal are due to the background noise signals.
The leak diameter is about 25mm. In Fig.9, the gradual
opening of the leak valve predominantly falls at 50 Hz
frequency whereas the instant closure of the leak valve at 150
Hz. In case of high pressure pipelines, the vibrations due to
leak signal are considerably high and over a period of time.
Thus there will be no dominant frequency peak but a dominant
region with frequency spikes [11]. The disturbance signal was
induced as constant blow to the pipe wall very near the leak
valve with a metallic object.
Fig. 8. Frequency Spectrum of No leak signal
Fig.10 shows the frequency spectrum for pipe knocking.
Even though the dominant peak falls at 50 Hz, the magnitude
of the signal is low compared to the leak signal. As dominant
peaks don’t exist in no leak signals, comparing it with leak
and disturbance signal could be used to predict the occurrence
of an event which could damage the pipeline.
In order to extend this work further, the placement of the
sensor is at the bottom of the pipeline for analyzing
contaminant Ingress into the pipeline. This work can be
further extended by varying the leak aperture and determining
the dominant frequency peaks. Leak location can be evaluated
by processing the signals using statistical algorithms such as
standard deviation and correlation. Since only one segment of
the pipeline of about 10m is considered FFT is used for
analyzing the signals in this work. The frequency spectrum
obtained can be used as a baseline to further extend the work
to suitable leak localization algorithms for larger pipe
segments.

Fig. 9. Frequency Spectrum due to leakage in pipe
Fig. 10. Frequency Spectrum due to Pipe knocking
CONCLUSION
The investigation of acoustic wave propagation due
to an incident pressure field is carried out in the simulation
study. Results show the dominant frequency peaks at 60Hz for
different pipe outer diameter in frequecny domain analysis.
Experimental studies were carried out to verify the same. The
signals obtained for leak and disturbance were generated in
time domain. The Fast fourier transform was used to analyze
the obtained signals in frequency domain. It can be seen that
there was no dominant peaks when there is no leak whereas
for synthetic leak signals generated to valve opening and
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closing dominat peaks falls at 50 Hz and 150 Hz respectively.
Similarly, the dominant peak in the frequency spectrum for the
disturbance signal was also analyzed. An error of about 5%
existed between the simulation results and the experimental
analysis which can be improved further in future work. Thus
this work can be used for study on detection of leak or other
event occurrence in low pressure gas distribution pipelines.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
This work was supported by the energy innovation
programme office (EIPO) through the national research
foundation and Singapore energy market authority. Project
LA/Contract No.: NRF2014EWT-EIRP003-002.
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