Application of FBG Based Sensor in Pipeline Safety Monitoring

Pipeline leakage and corrosion are two serious threats to pipeline safety operation. Therefore, to ensure the safety operation of long-distance pipeline, it is of great significance to conduct pipeline monitoring. Since hoop strain is an effective indicator to reflect the inner pressure fluctuation and the wall thickness reduction of the pipeline, a method of monitoring leakage and corrosion simultaneously was proposed based on hoop strain measurement. In order to test the hoop strain variation, this paper introduces a fiber Bragg grating (FBG) strain hoop sensor. To verify the monitoring method and the performance of this FBG strain sensor, a pipeline leakage simulation experiment and corrosion simulation experiment were conducted on an actual pipeline and a polyvinyl chloride (PVC) pipe model, respectively. The experimental results demonstrate that the pipeline leakage and corrosion can be detected by the FBG hoop strain sensor. The FBG strain hoop sensor is a promising device in pipeline safety monitoring.