Open AccessDETECTION OF UNAUTHORIZED CONSTRUCTION EQUIPMENT IN PIPELINE RIGHT-OF-WAYS
Author(s) -
J.E. Huebler
Publication year - 2003
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Reports
DOI - 10.2172/826364
Subject(s) - optical time domain reflectometer , pipeline (software) , hazardous waste , debugging , pipeline transport , computer science , optical fiber cable , optical fiber , engineering , computer security , fiber optic sensor , forensic engineering , real time computing , telecommunications , mechanical engineering , operating system , fiber optic splitter , waste management
Natural gas transmission companies mark the right-of-way areas where pipelines are buried with warning signs to prevent accidental third-party damage. Nevertheless, pipelines are sometimes damaged by third-party construction equipment. A single incident can be devastating, causing death and millions of dollars of property loss. This damage would be prevented if potentially hazardous construction equipment could be detected, identified, and an alert given before the pipeline was damaged. The Gas Technology Institute (GTI) is developing a system to solve this problem by using an optical fiber as a distributed sensor and interrogating the fiber with a custom optical time domain reflectometer. Key issues are the ability to detect encroachment and the ability to discriminate among potentially hazardous and benign encroachments. The work performed in the 1st quarter of 2003 included fine-tuning and debugging of the custom Optical Time Domain Reflectometer being constructed for data collection and analysis. The detector was redesigned reducing the noise floor by over a factor of ten. While GTI's OTDR was being improved, a new, commercial OTDR was used to verify that the technique is capable of measuring one pound continuous force applied to the Hergalite. Optical fibers were installed at the ANR Pipeline test site along an operating pipeline