Oil and gas pipelines include crude oil pipelines, finished product pipelines and natural gas pipelines. They have the characteristics of large geographical span, long construction years, frequent safety accidents, and the total mileage of pipelines is showing a trend of continuous growth. The need to strengthen pipeline safety patrol and management is more urgent. However, conventional patrol inspections obviously cannot meet the requirements of high, precise and accurate, and more scientific technical means are needed to detect oil and gas pipelines. Therefore, drone inspections have gradually become an application trend in the oil and gas industry at home and abroad.
Advantages of drone pipeline inspection
According to the needs of inspections, drones can carry mission equipment with a variety of sensors to complete the acquisition of visible light, infrared, laser and other data. At the same time, high-precision video equipment is used to observe the lines with visible light and infrared thermal imaging. By carrying equipment, VR videos and three-dimensional modeling of designated areas can be generated, and pipeline landforms can also be explored.
Compared with traditional human patrol methods, the use of drone inspections can increase the inspection area and greatly improve the inspection efficiency. Through the high-altitude perspective, traditional inspection blind spots can also be checked to enhance the inspection range.
UAV pipeline inspection classification
Specifically, UAV pipeline inspection work can be divided into daily inspection, special inspection and supporting inspection.
Daily inspection:
The drone flies through the preset route, observes suspicious points and takes photos and records, and imports them into its pipeline digital background. The background converts the position into the pipeline pile number plus the front and back distance for marking and backtracking.
At the same time, the payload uses visible light + infrared thermal imager, which can complete uninterrupted inspection during the day + night.
Special inspection:
By carrying a thermal imaging camera, the temperature of the leak can be quickly detected, the pipeline temperature can be warned, and the leak point can be accurately located. At the same time, the picture can be sent back in time for the command center to make decisions and carry out UAV oil and gas leak inspection; the visible light camera can search for oil theft from high altitude and collect evidence for oil theft; the multi-rotor UAV fire extinguishing system equipped with fire extinguishing bombs and dual-light pods can complete the rapid reconnaissance of large-scale fires around oil and gas pipelines, and can also warn the tank temperature and accurately locate the fire center.
Supporting inspection:
Including pipeline construction information collection, construction progress management, construction supervision, etc.
The pipeline inspection project helps CNPC to further comprehensively grasp and monitor the patrol situation around the pipeline, improve the application of informatization in the maintenance work, improve work efficiency and maintenance effect, and make the drone intelligent patrol play a greater role.
Purway CH-4 Laser Methane Detector is a small and lightweight drone-mounted device with high sensitivity, long telemetry distance and fast response speed. Based on laser absorption spectroscopy technology, it can quickly detect trace methane gas in the air, with the farthest inspection distance of 300 meters. The device cleverly combines the detection laser with the precise calibration of the visible light sensor to achieve accurate visual inspection; with the intelligent stabilization control technology of the gimbal, it can quickly provide users with key information, help users seize the opportunity, and improve perception and operation efficiency to a new level.
