Classifications

• • G—PHYSICS
  • G01—MEASURING; TESTING
  • G01V—GEOPHYSICS; GRAVITATIONAL MEASUREMENTS; DETECTING MASSES OR OBJECTS; TAGS
  • G01V15/00—Tags attached to, or associated with, an object, in order to enable detection of the object

Definitions

• the present invention relates to a method and a device for locating anomalies located inside a hollow structure located on the floor and / or buried.
• This process applies in particular, but not exclusively, to the maintenance of rigid or flexible "pipelines", allowing the transport of oils or gases between the production sites and the storage or distribution sites, located on the same site. ground and / or buried.
• a "pipeline” consists of a metal casing, made from sections of steel tube, and an outer protection made of concrete.
• the sections have a length of about 12 meters and an outer diameter generally between 12 inches and 36 inches; they are connected to each other by welding.
• the concrete coating allowing the protection of the metal casing, has a thickness of about 2 to 5 centimeters.
• the welding of the metal sections and the coating of the concrete envelope are performed by equipment close to the installation site; which equipment deposits the "pipeline” in a continuous manner on the ground or in a trench, according to a path previously defined and controlled by an absolute positioning system.
• the "pipelines” can be laid in a non-rectilinear manner, for reasons related to the nature of the terrain; the soil is necessarily horizontal; other "pipelines” may be present and constitute obstacles to bypass or overlap.
• This information can be stored at the robot itself, or transmitted in real time, to a control station, via an umbilical cord.
• the location of an anomaly, observed by the observation robot, at the level of the weld n, or of an anomaly observed between the weld n and the weld n + 1, can be performed externally, in a second step, by an identical count, since the same origin, welds, given that these are apparent indirectly by the nature of the concrete coating performed at said welds.
• the object of the invention is therefore more particularly to eliminate these disadvantages.
• this reference relating to the "pipeline” does not constitute a positioning reference in absolute value of said "pipeline”.
• Other means must be implemented to define the topographic relationship between this relative reference system of the "pipeline” and the positioning system in absolute value accessible at ground level.
• the identification of the reference relating to the "pipeline”, constituted by marks accessible inside and outside that are in this case the welds connecting the sections, is performed via transponders, which include an identification code.
• transponders will be mechanically secured to the "pipeline", each of said transponders including at least one identification code specific to the "pipeline” and to the weld associated with the corresponding transponder.
• a transponder low power remote reading device comprising receiving means coupled to a receiving antenna for remotely sensing the signal transmitted by the transponder when it is placed in the vicinity of the transponder, and means for processing the transponder received signal and to provide the information corresponding to the received signal, will identify, without risk of error, the weld associated with said transponder.
• the reading device may comprise means for storing information corresponding to the received signal and means for remote transmission of the identification code read to a receiving station comprising a computer terminal.
• the reading device may comprise means for writing information in a writable and readable memory of the transponder, concerning, by way of example, the characteristics of the maintenance intervention, the operational conditions in which the maintenance operations were carried out.
• the reading and writing of information in the writable and readable memory of the transponder may be performed in situ, on the ground or in a buried medium, but also beforehand on the surface before the introduction of said transponder in the trench; in this case, data are entered in the transponder memory defining the initial conditions specific to the buried structure concerned.
• the operating frequencies for reading and writing information in the writable and readable memory of the transponder will be those for example standardized to date in free propagation in the air, namely 125 kHz and 134.2 kHz , or any other preferably lower frequency than these.
• the powers generated by the reading and writing device they will be between IW and 100W, preferably between 4W and 2OW.
• the operating characteristics can be as follows:
• Frequency less than 125 kHz; power: 2OW; reading and writing distance separating the reading and writing device from the transponder: 150 cm.
• the in situ modes of securing the transponder to the buried hollow structure may be gluing, the use of straps, or the use of open collars; during assembly in the factory, the fastening modes will essentially be of the piton type fixed or embedded in the coating of the hollow structure made of concrete or resin.
• FIG. 2 represents a schematic view of a first means of securing the transponder
• FIG. 3 represents a schematic view of a second means of securing the transponder
• FIG. 4 represents a block diagram of an exemplary architecture of a transponder
• FIG. 5 represents a block diagram of an exemplary architecture of a reading and writing device
• FIG. 6 represents a simplified diagram of a control system of a buried "pipeline".
• the method for locating anomalies located inside a hollow structure placed on the ground and / or buried comprises the following steps: - definition of the origin reference ( block 1) for assigning the same origin for the phases of internal observation of the structure and external location of a possible anomaly in said structure,
• n welds As has been defined previously, said marks accessible inside and outside are in this case the welds connecting the sections of the "pipeline". Furthermore, near the n welds (n being equal to or greater than 1), transponders are mechanically secured to the outer envelope of the "pipeline". This envelope, made of concrete, provides protection of metal sections; two cases may occur:
• the "pipeline”, shown in section, consists of a metal casing 4, covered with a concrete coating 3; the whole rests on the ground 5.
• the positioning of the transponder can be performed in situ.
• the transponder 1 is integral with an open collar 2, made of flexible and unalterable material; which collar, by its elasticity, allows to position the transponder 1 in the vicinity of the weld connecting two sections constituting the metal casing 4.
• the transponder 1 will be positioned in the vicinity of the upper generator of the "pipeline", so as to facilitate the reading of the identification code of the transponder and consequently the corresponding weld.
• the "pipeline”, shown in section, consists of a metal casing 4, covered with a concrete coating 3; the whole is buried in the ground 5; nevertheless, the realization of the concrete coating was previously carried out by the "pipeline” laying equipment.
• the transponder 1 will include a sealing member 2 for securing the transponder of the "pipeline" during the setting of the coating concrete.
• the architecture of a transponder essentially comprises:
• a processor 1 intended for device management, namely:
• ROM 2 intended to contain the instructions of the "Operating System"
• a RAM 3 intended to temporarily store the data during the read and write operations
• the transponders used according to the invention may preferably be passive type; indeed, active transponders are powered by a source of electrical energy, and therefore have a limited autonomy.
• the electromagnetic energy emitted by the reading and writing device induces at the level of the antenna of the transponder an electrical energy making it possible to feed the different organs of the transponder.
• the authorized transponder operating frequencies are 125 kHz, 13.56 MHz, 2.45 GHz, and the band 860-926 MHz and 433 MHz.
• the carrier frequency will be less than 125 kHz; the transmission power of the reading and writing device will be close to or greater than 4 W; these characteristics thus make it possible to read the transponder at a distance close to 100 cm, and to write data in the memory of the transponder while being close to this one.
• the architecture of a reading and writing device essentially comprises:
• the elements 4, 5, 6, 7 constitute the "transmitter” part
• the elements 1, 2, 3, 8 constitute the "read / write” part.
• the interface 8 makes it possible to communicate with a management center responsible for conducting the maintenance operations.
• a PL "pipeline” is buried near a TE terminal; this particular allows access to the interior of the "pipeline” to perform maintenance.
• a robot R T E observation and possibly radiography such as for example: "ROV"("Remotely Operated Vehicle"), borrows the interior of the "pipeline” being connected by a umbilical cord C TE at the control and control station of the robot R T E located in the terminal TE; the umbilical cord C TE includes the power supply circuits, the remote control link, and the video link associated with an onboard camera.
• a plurality of transponders To, T 1 , T 2 ,... T N ,... Tp, T P + 1,... are arranged on the envelope of the "pipeline" PL, close to the corresponding welds connecting the sections metal.
• a VM maintenance vehicle flowing over the "pipeline" comprises, in the vicinity of the ground, a D VM write and read device.
• a radiofrequency link connects the maintenance vehicle VM and the terminal TE via a telecommunications satellite ST and their respective antennas AV M> A TE , A ST -
• the VM maintenance vehicle through the DV M write and read device, will be able to write in the various transponders information consecutive to the maintenance operation, namely: - the Customer reference,
• a map will make it possible to visualize on a computer screen the location of the "pipelines” and to display related information. Thanks to a known process of successive zooms, the intervention data management center will have access to all the information concerning the "pipeline” fleet at the regional level, then at the zone level, then at the level of immediate proximity. , then finally at the "pipeline” represented by a section and the corresponding transponders, each of said transponders being associated with a table containing the information stored in the transponder memory.
• the method according to the invention of localization of anomalies located inside and outside of a hollow structure placed on the ground and / or buried, makes it possible to carry out maintenance operations in response.
• the desired objectives that is to say:
• transponders installed in situ allows a better knowledge of the maintenance conditions and the enrichment of databases guaranteeing a better quality of the maintenance operations.

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• Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
• Life Sciences & Earth Sciences (AREA)
• General Life Sciences & Earth Sciences (AREA)
• General Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
• Geophysics (AREA)
• Geophysics And Detection Of Objects (AREA)
• Radar Systems Or Details Thereof (AREA)
• Automatic Assembly (AREA)

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• 2005
  • 2005-01-20 FR FR0500589A patent/FR2880954B1/fr not_active Expired - Fee Related
• 2006
  • 2006-01-18 CA CA002592409A patent/CA2592409A1/fr not_active Abandoned
  • 2006-01-18 MX MX2007008825A patent/MX2007008825A/es not_active Application Discontinuation
  • 2006-01-18 CN CNA2006800027879A patent/CN101107540A/zh active Pending
  • 2006-01-18 WO PCT/FR2006/000143 patent/WO2006077333A1/fr active Application Filing
  • 2006-01-18 US US11/814,376 patent/US20080129534A1/en not_active Abandoned
  • 2006-01-18 BR BRPI0606425-6A patent/BRPI0606425A2/pt not_active IP Right Cessation
  • 2006-01-18 AU AU2006207395A patent/AU2006207395A1/en not_active Abandoned
  • 2006-01-18 RU RU2007131447/28A patent/RU2007131447A/ru not_active Application Discontinuation
  • 2006-01-18 EP EP06709145A patent/EP1839075A1/de not_active Withdrawn
• 2007
  • 2007-08-20 NO NO20074243A patent/NO20074243L/no not_active Application Discontinuation

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