Paper Title
Detection of Faults in Pipe that Transmits Crude Oil by Vibration Sensing: Analytically and Experimentally
Abstract
Pipelines are among the most important elements for transporting fluids in the oil industry. Researches show that 55% of the causes of shutdown in oil refineries are due to pipe problems. Oil leakage is a common problem that often results in oil waste, damage, and hazard to public health. The oil industry has invested in equipment to detect and localize leaks along the oil distribution system. The experience in oil distribution companies shows that elimination of crack and reducing erosion–corrosion effects can be achieved by applying strategies that require loss analysis followed by crack detection. In this work, two important cases that cause damage to the pipe, namely, crack and erosion–corrosion, are investigated. In analytical analysis, the mathematical equations for solving the two cases show high compatibility with the solution by examining the vibration sensors for pipeline leakage using an open-source microcontroller panel called Arduino. In experimental analysis, the variation of vibrating sensitivity detects the presence of defects. Therefore, detecting defects in the pipeline before the fault occurs is possible and could prevent large losses. The results show that Arduino was able to detect the defect in the pipe due to the vibration effects. The vibration of the simply supported pipe in the crack and erosion–corrosion cases decreases and increases, respectively.
Index Terms - Arduino, erosion-corrosion, fundamental natural frequency, Vibration in pipe