International Science and Technology Journal

Over the last few years, Vibration-based leak detection (VBLD) method in water pipeline systems has been a subject of research focus. It is identified as an effective method for early leak detection and better choice for monitoring than inspection. Previous publications experimentally investigated VBLD method for small scale water pipeline systems. The current project computationally investigates this method for a large-scale crude oil pipeline system. Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) employing Reynolds Stress Model (RSM) was coupled using one-way approach with Finite Element Analysis (FEA) to simulate the Fluid-Structure Interaction (FSI). There were several case scenarios investigated namely the pipe in normal operation (without leak) and in abnormal operation (with leaks). Three different leaks with different severities, small, medium and large respectively were studied. The vibration measurements for these mentioned scenarios were all obtained and compared. The results indicate that vibration measurement increases as the leak size expands. The VBLD is found capable of detecting leakages with different damage severities. The FSI model developed in the current study is useful to design further experiments related to pipeline FSI. The findings provide some different vibration measurements that can be used for validation and verification for similar case studies.