Deformable Pipeline Gauge Pig for Dent Detection Without Lodging
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Solution Overview
Problem
Sophisticated pipeline inspection tools often get stuck in pipelines due to dents and imperfections, causing significant disruptions and potential safety hazards, and existing gauging tools are unable to accurately identify multiple issues before more expensive tools are inserted, leading to potential damage and revenue loss.
Innovation Solution
A foam pig with magnetic, acoustic, laser, or fiber optic capabilities that can deform and reset, allowing it to pass through pipeline obstructions and provide detailed geometry measurements, including dents and bends, to ensure safe operation of more expensive inspection tools and prevent tool lodgment.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If a sophisticated pipeline inspection tool is used to measure pipeline geometry, then measurement precision is improved, but the tool may become stuck or wedged in the line due to dents or imperfections
Solution Approach 1:
The patent employs a flexible foam body that can deform to navigate pipeline imperfections. The foam material allows the tool to compress and change shape when encountering dents or irregularities, preventing it from becoming stuck while maintaining measurement capability through embedded sensors that detect the foam's deformation state.
2Measurement precision
If a rigid gauge plate is used to check for dents, then the tool can identify pipeline imperfections, but it cannot identify multiple impacts once the plate is bent or deformed
Solution Approach 1:
The patent incorporates sensors that continuously monitor the foam body's deformation state and provide feedback signals. This allows the system to detect multiple separate deformation events along the pipeline, identifying multiple dents or imperfections by recording sequential sensor readings as the tool progresses through the line.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent uses changes in the foam body's physical parameters (compression, expansion, shape change) as it encounters pipeline imperfections. These parameter changes are detected by embedded sensors that measure deformation, allowing identification of multiple impacts through sequential detection of parameter variations.
3Ease of manufacture
If an aluminum gauge plate is used to clean and check the line, then the line can be prepared for inspection, but the plate bends and prevents certain identification of subsequent problems
Solution Approach 1:
The patent employs a reusable foam-based tool that can be recovered and reused after inspection. Unlike single-use gauge plates that become deformed and discarded, the elastic foam body returns to its original shape after deformation, allowing the same tool to continue inspecting the pipeline and identifying multiple issues throughout the line.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The foam pig effectively identifies and navigates pipeline changes, reducing the risk of tool lodgment and ensuring the safety of both the tool and the surrounding population by allowing operators to make informed decisions about tool insertion and operation, while minimizing damage and revenue loss.
Implementation Method 1
a deformable, resilient, flexible, soft or spongy body... The tool is 're-settable' in that it has a first shape before encountering a change in pipeline geometry or thickness, a second different shape when encountering the change (deformed relative to the first shape at least in part due to a dent, bend or some other physical attribute of the pipe), and then returning to the first shape after passing the change in pipeline geometry
Implementation Method 2
The body includes a magnetic source and one or more magnetic sensors associated with the magnetic source and configured to detect changes in magnetic field strength
Implementation Method 3
The body includes an optical source and one or more optical sensors associated with the optical source and configured to detect changes in optical intensity or transmission
Implementation Method 4
acoustic capabilities
Data Source
AI summary
A re-settable pipeline gauging tool (10) of this disclosure includes a cylindrical tool body (11) that includes a deformable portion (13) with a plurality of sensors (25) located near or on an external circumferential surface (12) of the deformable portion. A sealed unit (60) contains a corresponding signal source (25). Pipeline gauging relies upon the compressibility and elasticity inherent in the deformable portion as it encounters anomalies in pipeline geometry and moves between a first size and a second size, the signal strength of the source detected by the sensors changing as a result. The sensors may be arrayed in a circumferential band (47) about the deformable portion or along its length. In some embodiments, the sensors and source are magnetic or acoustic (e.g., transceivers or radar integrated chips). In other embodiments, the sensors and source are light or fiber optic.