Pipeline leak detection based on improved stochastic resonance

An active acoustic wave method is used to detect and locate the pipeline leak. For large and continue leaks, the cross-correlation analysis method is often adopted, but for some tiny gas leaks underground, the leakage signals are too weak to be detected. So an acoustic wave is put into the pipeline, and during the process of its propagation, the acoustic wave is reflected at the leaking point because of the discontinuity of acoustic impedance. Then the leaking point is located according to the arrival time of reflected wave. The stochastic resonance method is adopted to detect the weak signal of reflected wave in our study. Rescaling is used to deal with its restriction that it is only effective for low frequency signal. Then, the system parameters are optimized globally by the genetic algorithm. The experimental results show a good performance of the SR algorithm for leak detection in gas pipeline.