Fault detection in conductive pipelines by time domain reflectometry

An experimental investigation is performed to carry out the feasibility of using an electrical method for the detection of defects in conductive pipelines. The pipeline, with an auxiliary conductor acting as signal return, is treated as a transmission line, and the time domain reflectometry (TDR) technique is used to reveal the presence of holes or defects. The introduction of the auxiliary conductor reduces considerably the influence of the pipeline installation features on the propagation of electrical signals along the pipeline (i.e., presence of ground, impact of the weather conditions on the ground electrical parameters, etc.). Suitable statistical processing of the TDR measured data allows the pipeline fault identification. The proposed method is appealing since it may represent a continuous and economic diagnostic method for testing the pipeline integrity.

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