Nowadays, the transportation of hydrocarbons on a large scale and through long distances (up to several thousands of kilometres) is often undertaken by means of pipeline networks, which represent an efficient and widespread tool for the conveyance of oil and gas products. Potential damages or failures to such structures might have severe environmental, health, and economic repercussions: as a result, pipeline monitoring becomes an operation of paramount relevance. The current technological frontier for overseeing the condition of fluid transportation assets is the utilization of physical measurements collected along the conduits, from which data-driven relations can be derived. Such constitutive relations are subsequently analyzed to predict the future operational status of a given pipeline network. However, there is still uncertainty in the literature on how to systematically build an effective monitoring technology. More specifically, two gaps have been identified: firstly, there is not an established and rigorous methodology for deriving data-driven relations and evaluating the reliability of pipeline integrity techniques; lastly, most solutions are not industry-ready yet, as they lack validation on real pipeline assets or are not enabled to operate in real-time. The latter is essential in the modern oil and gas industry, as fast-paced environments demand quickly adaptive control systems. This work aims at overcoming such limitations: after having established a solid set of clearly repeatable principles, three different pipeline monitoring challenges are presented. For each one, a specific data-driven solution has been developed to solve the related issue and concurrently satisfy all the aforementioned technological requirements. Lastly, all the proposed applications are based solely on single- or multi-point acoustic pressure measurements collected along the conduit, which are typically already available in most pipeline assets: this further simplifies the implementation of such techniques in an industrial scenario.
Oggigiorno, il trasporto di idrocarburi su larga scala e attraverso lunghe distanze (fino ad alcune migliaia di chilometri) avviene tipicamente tramite condotte, le quali rappresentano uno strumento diffuso ed efficiente per il trasporto di prodotti petroliferi e del gas. Eventuali danni o guasti a tali strutture potrebbero avere gravi ripercussioni ambientali, sanitarie ed economiche: di conseguenza, il monitoraggio delle tubazioni assume una rilevanza fondamentale. Per effettuare tale operazione, l'attuale frontiera tecnologica consiste nell'utilizzo di misure fisiche ottenute lungo le condotte stesse, dalle quali vengono successivamente derivate delle relazioni basate sui dati ivi raccolti. Tali relazioni costitutive sono successivamente analizzate in modo da predire il futuro regime operativo dell'oleodotto. Tuttavia, in letteratura esiste ancora dell'incertezza sulle modalità per realizzare in maniera sistematica una tecnologia di monitoraggio efficace. Nello specifico, sono state individuate due lacune: anzitutto, non esiste una metodologia consolidata e rigorosa per derivare tali relazioni basate sui dati; infine, la maggior parte delle soluzioni proposte non sono pronte per l'industrializzazione, in quanto sono deficitarie di una fase di validazione su condotte non sperimentali e non sono in grado di operare in tempo reale. L'ultimo requisito è particolarmente rilevante nell'attuale industria petrolifera, in quanto ambiente fortemente dinamico che richiede sistemi di controllo rapidamente adattativi. Questo lavoro cerca di colmare tali limiti: dopo aver enunciato un insieme di principi chiaramente replicabili, vengono presentate tre diverse problematiche relative al monitoraggio di condotte petrolifere. Per ciascuna di esse, è stata sviluppata un'applicazione ad hoc basata sui dati, in modo da fornire una soluzione innovativa e allo stesso tempo soddisfare tutti i requisiti tecnologici sopra citati. Infine, tutti i metodi proposti fanno solamente uso di misure acustiche di pressione, raccolte in una o più posizioni lungo la condotta: tale aspetto semplifica ulteriormente l'implementazione industriale di tali tecniche.
Smart vibroacoustic monitoring of pipeline fluid transportation assets
Giro, Riccardo Angelo
2022/2023
Abstract
Nowadays, the transportation of hydrocarbons on a large scale and through long distances (up to several thousands of kilometres) is often undertaken by means of pipeline networks, which represent an efficient and widespread tool for the conveyance of oil and gas products. Potential damages or failures to such structures might have severe environmental, health, and economic repercussions: as a result, pipeline monitoring becomes an operation of paramount relevance. The current technological frontier for overseeing the condition of fluid transportation assets is the utilization of physical measurements collected along the conduits, from which data-driven relations can be derived. Such constitutive relations are subsequently analyzed to predict the future operational status of a given pipeline network. However, there is still uncertainty in the literature on how to systematically build an effective monitoring technology. More specifically, two gaps have been identified: firstly, there is not an established and rigorous methodology for deriving data-driven relations and evaluating the reliability of pipeline integrity techniques; lastly, most solutions are not industry-ready yet, as they lack validation on real pipeline assets or are not enabled to operate in real-time. The latter is essential in the modern oil and gas industry, as fast-paced environments demand quickly adaptive control systems. This work aims at overcoming such limitations: after having established a solid set of clearly repeatable principles, three different pipeline monitoring challenges are presented. For each one, a specific data-driven solution has been developed to solve the related issue and concurrently satisfy all the aforementioned technological requirements. Lastly, all the proposed applications are based solely on single- or multi-point acoustic pressure measurements collected along the conduit, which are typically already available in most pipeline assets: this further simplifies the implementation of such techniques in an industrial scenario.| File | Dimensione | Formato | |
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https://hdl.handle.net/10589/198393