Detection of Unauthorized Construction Equipment in Pipeline Right-of-Ways

The leading cause of incidents on transmission pipelines is damage 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 is hit. Currently there is no method for continuously monitoring a pipeline right-of-way. Instead, companies periodically walk or fly over the pipeline to find unauthorized construction activities. Gas Technology Institute (GTI) is developing a system to solve this problem by using an optical fiber buried above the pipeline as a distributed sensor. A custom optical time domain reflectometer (OTDR) is used to interrogate the fiber. Key issues in the development of this technology are the ability to detect encroachment and the ability to discriminate among potentially hazardous and benign encroachments. Advantages of the reflectometry technique are the ability to accurately pinpoint the location of the construction activity and the ability to separately monitor simultaneously occurring events. The basic concept of using OTDR with an optical fiber buried above the pipeline to detect encroachment of construction equipment into the right of way works. Sufficiently rapid time response is possible; permitting discrimination between encroachment types. Additional work is required to improve the system into a practical device

Nuclear Recoil Scintillation Linearity of a High Pressure 4^4He Gas Detector

We investigate scintillation linearity of a commercial high pressure $^4$He gas detector using monoenergetic 2.8 MeV neutrons from a deuterium-deuterium fusion neutron generator. The scintillation response of the detector was measured for a range of recoil energies between 83 keV and 626 keV by tagging neutrons scattering into fixed angles with a far-side organic scintillator detector. Detailed Monte Carlo simulations were compared to experimental data to determine the linearity of the detector response by comparing the scaling of the energy deposits in the simulations to the detector output. In this analysis, a linear scintillation response corresponds to a consistent value for the scaling factor between simulated energy deposits and experimental data for several different scattering angles. We demonstrate that the detector can be used to detect fast neutron interactions down to 83 keV recoil energies and can be used to characterize low-energy neutron sources, one of its potential applications

Instrumentation and Measurement Strategy for the NOAA SENEX Aircraft Campaign as Part of the Southeast Atmosphere Study 2013

Natural emissions of ozone-and-aerosol-precursor gases such as isoprene and monoterpenes are high in the southeastern US. In addition, anthropogenic emissions are significant in the southeastern US and summertime photochemistry is rapid. The NOAA-led SENEX (Southeast Nexus) aircraft campaign was one of the major components of the Southeast Atmosphere Study (SAS) and was focused on studying the interactions between biogenic and anthropogenic emissions to form secondary pollutants. During SENEX, the NOAA WP-3D aircraft conducted 20 research flights between 27 May and 10 July 2013 based out of Smyrna, TN. Here we describe the experimental approach, the science goals and early results of the NOAA SENEX campaign. The aircraft, its capabilities and standard measurements are described. The instrument payload is summarized including detection limits, accuracy, precision and time resolutions for all gas-and-aerosol phase instruments. The inter-comparisons of compounds measured with multiple instruments on the NOAA WP-3D are presented and were all within the stated uncertainties, except two of the three NO2 measurements. The SENEX flights included day- and nighttime flights in the southeastern US as well as flights over areas with intense shale gas extraction (Marcellus, Fayetteville and Haynesville shale). We present one example flight on 16 June 2013, which was a daytime flight over the Atlanta region, where several crosswind transects of plumes from the city and nearby point sources, such as power plants, paper mills and landfills, were flown. The area around Atlanta has large biogenic isoprene emissions, which provided an excellent case for studying the interactions between biogenic and anthropogenic emissions. In this example flight, chemistry in and outside the Atlanta plumes was observed for several hours after emission. The analysis of this flight showcases the strategies implemented to answer some of the main SENEX science questions

DETECTION OF UNAUTHORIZED CONSTRUCTION EQUIPMENT IN PIPELINE RIGHT-OF-WAYS

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 4th quarter of 2002 included fine-tuning and debugging of the custom Optical Time Domain Reflectometer being constructed for data collection and analysis. It also included installation of optical fibers at the test site along an operating pipeline

DETECTION OF UNAUTHORIZED CONSTRUCTION EQUIPMENT IN PIPELINE RIGHT-OF-WAYS

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 third quarter of the project (2nd quarter of 2002) includes design and construction of the diode laser driver and high-speed detector electronics. Fine-tuning of the electronics is proceeding. A new test site along an operating pipeline has been obtained

DETECTION OF UNAUTHORIZED CONSTRUCTION EQUIPMENT IN PIPELINE RIGHT-OF-WAYS

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 could be prevented if potentially hazardous construction equipment could be detected and identified 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 an optical time domain reflectometer. Key issues are the ability to detect encroachment and the ability to discriminate among potentially hazardous and benign encroachment. The work performed in the first quarter of the project includes development of the Research Management Plan, writing a paper assessing of the state-of-the-art in encroachment and third party damage detection, and development of factors for selecting the optical fiber sensors

DETECTION OF UNAUTHORIZED CONSTRUCTION EQUIPMENT IN PIPELINE RIGHT-OF-WAYS

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 an 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 second quarter of the project includes design of the instrument, selection of the key components, and beginning programming of the custom optical time domain reflectometer. Work included an assessment of two other approaches to measuring strain and vibrations in an extended optical fiber sensor

Construction of differential equations from experimental data of Karman vortex streets

With 11 figs.SIGLECopy held by FIZ Karlsruhe; available from UB/TIB Hannover / FIZ - Fachinformationszzentrum Karlsruhe / TIB - Technische InformationsbibliothekDEGerman