Integrated inline inspection system for gas pipelines
Introduction
Gas pipeline repair is extremely expensive exercise and that is why preventative maintenance is very vital. To be able to evaluate pipe condition the specially designed pigs are used. Pipeline pigs are devices that are inserted into and travel throughout the length of a pipeline driven by a product flow. Pig is equipped with up to few hundreds special sensors taking detail physical measurements of pipe wall conditions. This results in enormous amount of data to be stored onboard (100Mb and more per 1km of pipeline under inspection). When pig travels across the pipeline it might experience shocks up to 10G which puts very strong requirements to the onboard equipment design. The onboard inline inspection unit has embedded processor and the data acquisition/storage system. These stored data then analyzed off-line by the engineers and technicians to determine and report on the condition of the pipeline. Software includes a set of high reliability embedded programs for initial field data processing and storage and universal laboratory analysis & reporting package.
Case studies
