Security of major pipelines in presence of terroristic threats: prognostic estimates

The purpose of the paper is to substantiate the approach to determining the required probability of detecting unauthorized attempts to contact the pipe shell to maintain a minimum level of pipeline security losses. That is also nesseccerly to assess probability trend in the near future. Based on the information obtained it is planned to propose the structure of the physical pipeline security system to neutralize terroristic attacks. Results of studies of vibroacoustic oscillations in the shell of a major pipeline during its operation are given. The mechanisms of change in parameters of a vibroacoustic pulse excited at a local point of a pipeline when it is propagated through a pipeline are expalined. Results of studies on the solution of the problem of detection and prevention of emergencies in the protected zone by seismic oscillations are considered. It is concluded that it is possible to detect precursors of emergencies by vibroacoustic and seismic vibrations of the pipe shell. The effectiveness of the proposed approach to determine the requirements for systems of protection of objects from terroristic threats is demonstrated. The region was chosen in accordance with available published data for a relatively long period of time, necessary for setting up a computational experiment. It is interesting to receive prognostic estimates in that segment of economy for the country as a whole. Presence of such information allow creating a policy for detecting terroristic attacks and deciding on the requirements for the physical protection system that have to be provided in the current period and short term. Today, there is no way to effectively fight with prepared violators to achieve their goals using any of the known single-sensor systems. It is concluded that there is a need to develop a multi-sensor system, minimum equipment of which should include interconnected seismic and vibro-acoustic subsystems. Combination of vibro-acoustic and seismoanalytical subsystems allows compensating the most significant drawbacks of each of them

Impact of hydrolysis lignin on phytosanitary condition of soils during potato cultivation

Under conditions of field production experiments, it was shown that the large-tonnage waste of hydrolysis production is the hydrolysis lignin (HL), which can act not only as a source of organic matter in organic or organic-mineral fertilizers, but also serve as a matrix for microorganisms, contributing to improvement of phytosanitary state of soils. It was shown that HL not only contributes to improvement of physicochemical properties of soils and replenishment of humus reserves, but also increases the resistance of plants to diseases, providing a yield increase by 10-20%. In this regard, the integrated use of HL with microbiological compounds is of particular interest. It was revealed that use of HL in combination with bacterial compound – “Mizorin”, provided a statistically significant yield increase (2 t/ha or 6.6%). At the same time, the plants’ damage by common scab decreased from 0.75 to 0.46 points. The observed effect can be caused by the fact that the beneficial microflora, which is part of the “Mizorin” product, is significantly activated due to the branched matrix of lignin

Safe Helicopter Landing on Unprepared Terrain Using Onboard Interferometric Radar

This letter proposes a radar interferometric survey system for the ground surface of helicopter landing sites. This system generates high-quality three-dimensional terrain surface topography data and estimates the slope of the site with the required accuracy. This study presents the processing algorithms of the radar system for safe helicopter landing using an interferometric method and also demonstrates the efficiency of the proposed approach based on computer simulation results. The results of the calculated potential accuracy characteristics of such a system are presented, as well as one of the variants of the algorithmic implementation of a simulation computer model implemented on MATLAB. Visual results of modeling using an example of a helicopter landing on a non-uniform surface relief similar to a real case are shown. The study focuses on the simulation of a unique on-board radar system, which allows helicopters to land on an unprepared site with a high degree of safety, having previously determined the presence of dangerous irregularities, inclines, foreign objects, and mechanisms on the site