Articles techniques et présentations

This paper proposes a solution method using piezoelectric sensors to detect an anomaly, such as a deformation caused by a crack or fracture, in a pipeline. COMSOL Multiphysics, a simulation software, is used to induce anomalies of different magnitudes to a pipe and record the data from the piezoelectric sensor, which is placed along the pipeline. The anomalies are in a form of deformations caused by changing the voltage across the piezoelectric material. Analysis of the simulation results showed a relationship between the magnitude of the deformation of the pipe in the xy, xz, and yz directions and the magnitude of the voltage across the piezoelectric patch. In addition, the paper studied the behavior of the deformation with respect to time by including time-dependent relationships in the propagation of voltage through the piezoelectric patch along the pipe surface. Pipeline integrity supervisors can use the equations presented in this paper which relate the voltage read across the piezoelectric sensor, the deformation of the pipe, and the velocity of the crack propagation as baseline data to detect the existence of an anomaly. Finally, the simulation results from this paper can be used to detect not only the existence of an anomaly but also its type (crack, fracture, leak, or corrosion) as well as its location with high accuracy based on machine learning algorithms or advanced statistical analysis methods.