Session: 04-01-02 Leak Detection and Monitoring - Part I

Paper Number: 87788

87788 - Enhancing (Reducing) the Leak Detection Times in Pipelines by Deployment of Real-Time Ethernet Protocols in Lieu of Legacy Protocols Such as Dnp,iec-60870-5-101 / 104 

Cross-country pipeline suffers unexpected leaks to the surrounding environment. Causes include Pinhole/small leaks due to pitting corrosion, Leaks and bursts and Thefts.

The challenge faced by pipeliners is that communication protocols and the hard/firm/software systems deployed are able to complete the cycle of Information exchange from any field pipeline location sensors to Remote Terminal unit (RTUs) -SCADA->LDS in about 5 to 10 to 15 seconds time.

Typical traditional – legacy SCADA communication protocols in use are Modus-Serial / IP, DNP-Serial / IP, IEC 60870-5-101 / 104. These protocols are designed for Harsh Conditions, remote and in-accessible locations where Electric transmission and Cross Country Pipelines operate. They were also meant to work in (un)reliable communication to address failovers in SCADA to RTU communication, recovery of data in case of RTU failover, Clock Synchronization, Remote configuration and Download of Configuration etc., They are designed for era ofradio-links, V-SATS and dial-up modems working on low speed and low bandwidths.

Consequently, a leak is able to be detected in approximately 10-15 minutes time, as the LDS servers need to do multiple iterative complex engineering calculations involving numerical algorithms for solving the continuum equations that describe the physics of flow in the pipeline. By the time a leak  is detected and “Abnormal Operational Condition” steps are taken, an enormous quantity of product could have been lost from the pipeline, depending on the size of the leak, operating flow rates and size of the Pipelines leading to safety and environmental concerns.

Thieves, in some parts of the world, as they steal the product in very small quantities and over very short times and evade detection, by staying within the flowmeter inaccuracies or leak detection filter levels.

To address “time to detect” issue and small theft quantity detection the pipeline company can turn to Negative Pressure Wave (NPW) as a solution. However, the efficacy and location accuracy of such systems depends on the data sample frequency – with sample rates in the order of 10-100 ms being preferred. Often the NPW system is deployed at the RTU so that the required data rates can be achieved, which makes installation and maintenance difficult and expensive, especially if many section of pipeline are to be monitored by the NPW system. Although sending all of the sensor data to a centralised server for processing is possible, the collating, marshalling and sequencing of the data at the sample rates required for leak location accuracy makes this approach unappealing.

This paper presents a use case deployment of more advanced Ethernet protocol, the so called REALTIME Ethernet DETERMINISTIC Protocols (which are slightly different in implementation from normal Ethernet protocols) with in the Frame work of IEEE 802.3 and IEEE 802.3Q etc.,. to bring down this data acquisition time and use. These Protocols have emerged later to 2001 and are such Profinet – RT, Profinet – IRT, EtherCAR, Powerlink,  and Sercos – III.

These Protocols have acquisition times in less than 10mSec to micro-seconds, facilitate both hard real-time and Soft real-time application use.. They were mostly adopted for factory automation where multi-axis robots may work in a non-colluding manner, in say car assembly plants or high speed printing presses and Life Saving applications like Automotive Vehicle networks where millisecond latencies and clock synchronizations play a crucial role. However, no knows use case for cross-Country pipeline has not been to present date, specifically for improvisation of Leak detection Performance levels.  

This paper presents such deployment and as to how update times have been achieved to 10 to 20 ms range and provides some insight on how this integrates with a centralised NPW system.

The further possible work, is presented, as to how to improve the leak detection in future work – which could be by Edge processing or other AI/ML techniques which are available today.

Presenting Author: Nadimpalli V S N Raju Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd.,

Presenting Author Biography: Graduated in Mechanical Engineering From Gulburga University, in Karnataka State in Southern Part of India.<br/>Joined Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited, one of the Three Government of India Enterprises in Oil Refining and Marketing, in India - specifically in their Cross-Country Pipeline Strategic Pipeline Unit.<br/>Varied experience in Project Mgmt, Operations and Maintenance till date. Has varied experience in various fields of engineering involved in Cross-Country Pipelines, be it Pipeline Design, Cathodic Protection systems, Control and Instrumentation Systems, Programming Programmable Logic controllers, SCADA systems, Telecom Systems and Pipeline Integrity Mgmt systems - having worked as both Technical and Project Manager in Dual role responsibility without Consultant support, for good part of the tenure.<br/>Also has Experience in Aviation Fuel Business and Capability Building within the Corporation.<br/>Has Sabbatical leave to German University to pursue Masters in Electronic systems and Engineering Mgmt<br/>Has experience is Computer Simulation studies in CP systems. His Studies on impact of HVDC systems on Cross-Country Pipeline and his first presentation within a Government of India Forum has been Eye opener for Pipeliners in India - with respect to this subject.