There has been a substantial level of effort over the past several decades to understand the role of the human controller/operator in process control industry accidents. This work received a substantial impetus from the Three Mile Island nuclear…
A previous PRCI project (PR-015-084510, 2009) identified distributed temperature sensing (DTS) and acoustic emissions as potentially viable technologies for the detection of small leaks in liquid pipelines. Much of the assessment that led to this…
Various testing projects in the past few years have demonstrated the potential of cable-based leak detection technologies to accurately detect and locate relatively small leaks on onshore pipelines. Technologies such as distributed temperature…
Liquid pipeline companies operate a number of different facilities, such as pump stations, that are part of the transport stream of hazardous liquids. Many of these facilities are typically unmanned and have a number of sources (e.g., flanges,…
The integrity of the liquid pipeline network in the United States is of concern to the pipeline operators, the surrounding communities, and the government. During a recent Office of Pipeline Safety industry forum, concerns regarding the detection of…
A project was conducted to determine the viability of various external leak detection systems for use on liquid pipelines. This project defined external leak detection as a means of detecting unintended pipeline discharge without the use of pressure…
A field test was conducted to evaluate the ability of various negative-wave technologies to detect small leaks on liquid pipelines. A series of fluid withdrawals were conducted on a 41-km segment of a 30-inch diameter heavycrude pipeline. This report…
Detecting small leaks of liquid hydrocarbons from underground pipelines is difficult using currently available techniques. Hundreds of thousands of miles of aging pipelines run through North America alone and the incidence of small leaks is expected…
Several high-profile new pipeline projects in Canada and the USA have triggered investigation of auxiliary leak detection systems outside of the pipeline. Although external leak detection technologies have existed for decades, a comprehensive…
In June 2012, the RAM Program conducted a comprehensive field study to evaluate the performance of current off the shelf sensor technologies for detecting gas and oil leaks on pipelines. This study had three key objectives: 1. Evaluate the…