Lidar technologies application to leakage detection in oil product pipelines

Most of oil product pipelines have a design life from 20 till 25 years. The first attributes of their destruction are leakage of oil products. In our paper we try to discuss advantages and disadvantages of one of the main nondestructive techniques to oil product pipelines testing-- lidar technologies and its application to leakage detection. We consider applications of two basical lidars--IR-cw--LFM lidar (DIAL-system) for methane determining and pulsed lidar based on YAG:Nd3+ laser for registration of liquid oil products fluoristation. Set-ups for both lidars were made in Tupolev Kazan State Technical University and were used on the area of Sredne-Volgsk TransNefteProduct oil company for pipelines testing. Theoretical considerations and experimental results are presented. Some technical problems of specified lidars and their decisions are discussed. Particularly we present two frequency technique for He-Ne-DIAL-system and peculiarities of pumping source with high repetition range for pulsed laser. Its allow to improve characteristics of lidars. Possibilities of computerized leak detection system based on two specified lidars are discussed. It is shown that system can analyze leakage of different oil products, can determine leakage location (the second function of lidars-laser locator), can evaluate degree of damages. The structure of system and its peculiarities are shown.