MXPA06004317A - Method and system for monitoring fluid flow - Google Patents

Abstract

A method and system for monitoring fluid flow, such as fluid flow through pipelines or similar conduits for delivering natural gas, crude oil, and other similar liquid or gas energy commodities, relies on the measurement of acoustic waves generated by the fluid, thus allowing for monitoring of the flow rate without direct access to the fluid. Furthermore, the method and system allows for estimation of the operational dynamics of components or facilities of the production, transportation, storage, and distribution systems for the energy commodities.

Description

METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR MONITORING FLUID OF FLUID BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The present invention is concerned with a method and system for verifying fluid flow, such as the flow of fluid through similar pipes or conduits for feeding natural gas, crude oil and other liquids or comforts of gas energy. The method and system depends on the measurement of acoustic waves generated by the fluid, thus allowing the verification of the flow velocity without direct access to the fluid. Natural gas, crude oil and other liquid energy or gas commodities comprise a multi-million dollar economic market. These amenities are bought and sold by many parties and as with any commercial market, information about the commodities traded is very valuable for market participants. Specifically, the operations of the various components and facilities of the production, transportation, storage and distribution systems for each of these amenities can have significant impact on the price and availability of these amenities, making information about such operations valuable. Furthermore, such information is not generally disclosed publicly by the various owners of components or operators and access to the information is therefore limited. Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide a method and system for verifying the flow of fluid through similar pipes or conduits for feeding natural gas, crude oil and other liquid or gas energy conveniences, so that the information of such comforts can be accumulated and communicated to market participants and other interested parties.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention is a method and system for verifying fluid flow, such as fluid flow through similar pipes or conduits for feeding natural gas, crude oil and other similar liquid or gas power conveniences. The method and system depends on the measurement of acoustic waves generated by the fluid from an external location to the conduit in which the fluid is flowing, thus allowing the verification of the flow velocity without direct access to the fluid. In addition, the method and system of the present invention allows the estimation of the operational dynamics of the components or installations of the production, transportation, storage and distribution systems for energy comforts. A general property of fluids (whether compressible or incompressible) that flow through similar tubes or conduits is that they produce acoustic waves, that is sound or vibration. The sound produced by the flow of natural gas or other comfort of energy can be classified by its amplitude and frequency. In this respect, the amplitude and frequency are generally directly related to the velocity of the fluid through the conduit and thus the velocity of the fluid flow. Accordingly, a sound transducer or similar detector can be placed to detect the acoustic waves emanating from a particular conduit caused by the flow of fluid through the conduit and by recording and analyzing the acoustic waves, the velocity of flow through the conduit. conduit can be estimated. In this regard, the flow velocity is commonly expressed as the volumetric flow rate, that is, characterized as the volume of fluid passing through a designated point in a predetermined period of time. One or more sound transducers are placed in proximity to a pipe in such a way that the acoustic waves can be detected reliably, each sound transducer detects the amplitude and / or frequency of the acoustic waves generated by the gas flow through the pipeline and generates a signal representative of that measurement. The signal generated by each sound transducer is transmitted to a verification device above ground in general proximity to the sound transducers and the verified pipe. The verification device houses the various electronic equipment necessary to process the signals of the sound transducer and transmit the collected data to a central processing facility. Specifically, the verification device is programmed in such a way that it periodically or continuously collects data from the sound transducers, processes that data into a form suitable for transmission and transmits the data to a remote central processing facility. In the central processing facility, a computational analysis is performed by a digital computer program to determine the fluid flow velocity through the verified pipeline. In addition, for which particular installation or other component of the production, transportation, storage and / or distribution system for which all or most of the connected pipes are verified in accordance with the present invention, by means of a simple sum of the speeds of volumetric flow in each pipeline, the output or production of the installation can be determined. Then, the information associated with the production or output of one or more facilities or components can be communicated to third parties. This information may include not only the measured flow rates or estimated output values, but also historical data, capacity estimates or similar data that place the measured flow rates or estimated outgoing values in context for the market participant and other parties. interested It is contemplated and preferred that such communication to third parties be by means of exporting the data to a controlled access Internet website, to which end users can access through a common Internet browser program.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES Figure 1 is a schematic representation of a natural gas system; Figure 2 is a schematic representation of an exemplary implementation of the method and system of the present invention; Figure 3 is a perspective view of an exemplary verification device made in accordance with the present invention; Figure 4 is a functional block diagram of the sound transducers and the verification device in an exemplary implementation of the method and system of the present invention; Figure 5 is a functional block diagram of the communication components and the central processing facility in an exemplary implementation of the method and system of the present invention; Figure 6 illustrates the verification of a storage facility to which three pipes are connected in accordance with the method and system of the present invention; Figure 7 is a graph illustrating the measured signal amplitudes of a sodium transducer placed adjacent to a particular conduit for a defined period of time, such that a best fit equation can be developed for subsequent measurements of the velocity of flow through this particle conduit, and Figure 8 is a graph illustrating the measured signal amplitudes of a sound transducer placed adjacent to another particular conduit for a defined period of time, such that an equation of better fit for subsequent measurements of the flow velocity through this particular conduit.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention is a method and system for verifying fluid flow, such as fluid flow through similar pipes or conduits for feeding natural gas, crude oil and other similar liquid or gas power conveniences. The method and system depends on the measurement of acoustic waves generated by the fluid from an external location to the conduit in which the fluid is flowing, thus allowing the verification of the flow velocity without direct access to the fluid. In addition, the method and system of the present invention allows estimation of the output or output of components or installations of the production, transportation, storage and distribution systems for energy comforts. For purposes of the present application, the production, output and / or other measure of the flow of an energy comfort through or in relation to a component or installation can be referred to as the "operational dynamics" of that component or facility. To accomplish this, it is important, first, to recognize that the production, transportation, storage and distribution of liquid or gas energy comforts occur more frequently through pipe networks. These pipes connect various system components, such as production wells, storage facilities of various types and distribution networks consisting of even smaller pipes. For example, with respect to the natural gas industry and as illustrated in Figure 1, natural gas is located and collected by production companies from geographically dispersed wells, which are generally indicated by reference numbers 10A, 10B and 10C in Figure 1. The natural gas collected from these wells is fed through a network of pipes (or similar conduits) 12A, 12B, 12C to a main line 14. From such main line 14, natural gas is fed to storage facilities 16, which are commonly spent natural gas fields, salt domes or similar underground structures and / or local distribution companies 18, which in turn sell and feed natural gas to industrial, commercial and residential network end users for final consumption. In any case, a general property of fluids flowing through similar conduits or tubes is that they produce acoustic waves, that is, sound or vibration. The sound produced by the flow of natural gas or other comfort of energy can be classified by its amplitude and frequency. In this respect, the amplitude and frequency are in general directly related to the flow velocity and thus the flow velocity of the fluid. Furthermore, for compressible fluids, the amplitude and frequency are also generally directly related to the density of the fluid and thus the volumetric flow rate of the fluid. Accordingly, a fluid transducer or similar detector can be placed to detect the acoustic waves emanating from a particular conduit caused by the flow of fluid through that conduit. When recording and analyzing acoustic waves, the flow velocity through the conduit can be estimated. As mentioned above, the flow rate is commonly expressed as a volumetric flow rate, that is, characterized as the volume of fluid passing through a designated point in a predetermined ti period.

Figure 2 is a schematic representation of an exemplary implementation of the method and system of the present invention. In this example, an underground pipe 32 is verified. Thus, one or more sound transducers 34a, 34b ... 34n (also referred to as acoustic detectors or gas detectors) are placed in proximity to the pipe 32 which is in physical contact with the pipe 32 or sufficiently close to the pipe 32 in such a way that acoustic waves can be detected reliably. In this regard, multiple detectors are often preferable to provide multiple measurements at sites along the pipe 32, which can then be averaged to reduce the error. It is contemplated that several commercially available transducers or detectors could be used to obtain the objectives of the present invention. For example, a preferred sound transducer suitable for the purposes of the present invention is a high sensitivity seismic accelerometer manufactured and distributed by PCB Piezotronics, Inc. of Depew, New York, as model No. 393B12. As mentioned above, the sound transducers 34a, 34b ... 34n are placed in contact with the pipe 32 or sufficiently close to the pipe 32, so that the acoustic zones can be detected reliably. For example, many commercially available transducers supply mounting magnets for the direct attachment of the transducers to a similar pipe or conduit. Alternatively, when such a magnet is not provided, each sound transducer 34a, 34b ... 34n can be mounted to pipe 32 by attaching a magnet substantially flat to the transducer using an adhesive material, the magnet is then used to secure the transducer to sound 34a, 34b ... 34n to pipe 32. In this regard, each sound transducer 34a, 34b ... 34n could be provided with a curved magnet that better fits the contour of the pipe to which it is secured. In addition, various adhesives could be used to secure each sound transducer 34a, 34b ... 34n directly to the pipe 32. Finally, in circumstances where physical access to the pipe 32 is not possible or is not practical, the transducers of sound 34a, 34b ... 34n can be mounted on a similar bracket or frame that maintains the position of the sound transducers 34a, 34b ... 34n in relation to the pipe 32 without necessarily contacting the pipe 32. In In any case, in this example, each sound transducer 34 detects the amplitude of the acoustic waves generated by the gas flow through the pipe 32 and generates a signal representative of that amplitude. The signal generated by each sound transducer 34a, 34b ... 34n is transmitted via an appropriate cable 36a, 36b ... 36n to a ground verification device 30, which is preferably "local" which is located in proximity General to the sound transducers 34a, 34b ... 34n and the pipe 32. As illustrated in Figure 3, an exemplary verification device 30 includes a substantially weatherproof enclosure 31 that is secured to a pole and houses the various electronic equipment necessary to process the signals of the sound transducers 34a, 34b ... 34n and to transmit the collected data to a central processing facility as further described hereinbelow. Figure 4 is a functional block diagram of the sound transducers 34a, 34b ... 34n, and the verification device 30. As shown, the verification device 30 is programmed such that it periodically or continuously collects data from the sound transducers 34a, 34b ... 34n, process that data into a form suitable for transmission and transmit the data to a remote central processing facility where several computational analyzes are performed on the data to determine the gas flow rate natural or other energy comfort through the verified pipeline. Specifically, the output voltage of the first sound transducer 34a is applied to an amplification and filtration circuit 40a, which has a double function. One function of the amplification and filtration circuits 40a is to amplify the relatively small output voltage of the sound transducer 34a to a level that will be appropriate as an input to an analog-to-digital converter. The secondary function of the circuit 40a is to serve as a filter, removing extraneous noise from the output voltage of each sound transducer 34a. Similarly, the output voltage of the second sound transducer 34b is applied to another amplification and filtering circuit 40b to amplify the voltage and eliminate foreign noise and so on. The specific design of the amplification and filtration circuits 40a, 40b ... 40n is not material and several amplification and filtering circuits could be designed to obtain the double objectives of amplifying the voltage and eliminating strange noise by that of ordinary skill in the technique. After the amplification and filtering of the respective signals, the output voltages are then amplified to the inputs of an analog multiplexer (MUX) 42. In addition, although it is not shown in Figure 4, it may be advisable to apply the output voltages of the respective amplification and filtration circuits 40a, 40b ... 40n to the inputs of respective sample and retention amplifiers before such output voltages are applied to the MUX 42 in order to avoid deviation over time in the subsequent conversion of These signals are analogous to digital. Sample and retention amplifiers are generally known in the art and any conventional means for effecting the sample taking and retention function can be incorporated into the present invention as contemplated herein. From the MUX 42, the signals are passed separately through an analog to digital (A / D) converter 44. Which of the multiple signals are passed through the analog-to-digital converter 44 at any given time is determined by a logic control associated with a microprocessor 50.

The converted data, representative of the amplitude of the acoustic waves measured and now in digital form, are stored in the memory associated with the microprocessor 50.

Then, the emitted signal from the microprocessor 50 is transmitted to one or both of a radio frequency (RF) transceiver 58 with associated transmission antenna 60 (which is also shown in Figure 3) and a land line network 62 for subsequent transmission of the signal to a central processing facility. Finally, the individual electronic components of the verification device 30 are preferably energized by a battery 70 that can be continuously recharged by a solar panel array 72 (which is also shown in Figure 3). Figure 5 is a functional block diagram of the communication components and the central processing facility in this exemplary implementation of the method and systems of the present invention. These components are not installed in the field with the verification device 30, but rather they are located in a remote location. Specifically, the data emitted from the microprocessor 50 illustrated in Figure 3 are transmitted to the central processing facility via one or both of a radio frequency (RF) transceiver 58 with associated transmission antenna 60 and a land line network 62. An antenna receiver 100 or similar communication component, which is in the range of one or more verification devices 30 in the field, receives this data, which is representative of the acoustic measurements. The receiving antenna 100 is operatively connected to a digital or analog communications network 102 that transmits the signal to the central processing facility 110. Such transmission may be effected for example via a satellite link 104, a microwave link 106 and / or a fiber optic link 108, although other means of transmission can certainly be used without deviating from the spirit and scope of the present invention. In the central processing facility 110, a computational analysis, as will be described in detail below, is performed by a digital computer program 112 to determine the flow velocity of the gas (or similar fluid) through the 32 pipe. , for any particular natural gas installation or other component of the production, transportation, storage and / or distribution system for which all or most of the connected pipes are verified in accordance with the present invention, by means of a simple sum of The flow velocities in each pipeline can determine the natural gas production of the facility. Then, the information associated with the production or output of one or more facilities or components can then be communicated to third parties. This information may include not only the measured flow rates or estimated output values, but also historical data, capacity estimates or similar data that place the measured flow rates or estimated outgoing values in context for the market participant and other parties. interested It is contemplated and preferred that such communication to third parties be by means of exporting the data to a controlled access Internet website 114, to which end users can access by means of a common Internet browser program 116, such as Microsoft's Internet Explorer®. Of course, communication of information and data to third parties can also be effected through a wide variety of other known means of communication without deviating from the spirit and scope of the present invention. As an additional refinement, the communication channel of the microprocessor 50 of the local verification device 30 to the central processing facility 110 can be bidirectional, so that the information maintained and stored in the microprocessor 50 can be sent on a programmed basis or It can be scrutinized. further, by means of bi-directional communications, the microprocessor 50 is reprogrammable remotely. With respect to the computational analysis mentioned above, the ratio of acoustic waves measured through a conduit to the flow velocity is somewhat mathematically complex because the acoustic waves can result not only from the flow of the fluid, but also from the interaction of the fluid with mechanical components of the pipeline, which include compressors, gas flow meters, flow and pressure regulators, control valves and / or similar equipment connected and / or external to the pipeline. However, in circumstances where the interaction of such components or equipment is independent of the changing conditions in the fluid itself, the amplitude of the acoustic waves generally increases with increases in the flow velocity. For further details and discussion of noise sources and noise levels produced in gas pipe lines, reference is made to Nelson, D.A.; and Cooper, B.A. : Reduced-Noise Gas Flow Design Guide for NASA Glenn Research Center, Proceedings of InterNoise 99, the International Congress on Noise Control Engineering, Institute of Noise Control Engineering (Washington, DC, 1999), a publication that is incorporated herein by reference . Thus, by selecting an appropriate site along a pipe, a site where the interaction of the fluid with other components or equipment is minimal, by comparing acoustic waves measured with known flow rates, a relationship can be developed appropriate mathematics for predicting the flow velocity. For example, Figure 7 is a graph illustrating the measured signal amplitudes of a sound transducer positioned adjacent to a particular duct for more than a time period of 105 hours. During this period of time, the actual gas flow was also verified. When applying a linear regression analysis to this data set, a mathematical relationship was developed, specifically: Estimated Flow (Mcfh) = [K (Amplitude of Signal) + C] * 1000 (1) where Mcfh refers to thousands of cubic feet / hour, and where K = 1.6159 and C = 0.5158 / Of course, this mathematical relationship is somewhat unique to the particular conduit. Of course, the size of the duct, the characteristics of the specific sound transducers and environmental conditions can all have an effect on the ratio between the acoustic waves measured and the flow velocity.

For another example, Figure 8 is a graph illustrating the measured amplitudes of a sound transducer placed adjacent to another conduit for a period of 180 hours. Again, during this period of time, the actual gas flow was also verified. The application of a linear regression analysis to this data set, a mathematical relationship was developed, specifically: Estimated Flow (mcfh) = K (Signal Amplitude) c (2) where K = 2100 and C = 0.30. This mathematical relationship is also unique to the particular conduit and environmental conditions. However, when developing "best fit" equations for several conduits in several facilities, as the previous examples demonstrate, when a new conduit is going to be verified, an appropriate equation can be selected based on the size of the conduit, environmental conditions, etc. In addition, by means of data accumulation and analysis, it is expected that additional correlations can be deduced, such that the ratio of the constants K and C to: (1) certain identifiable characteristics of the conduit, such as the internal diameter of the conduit and wall thickness of the duct; (2) characteristics of the fluid, such as temperature, pressure, speed, etc .; Y (3) characteristics associated with different types of nearby mechanical noise sources, such as compressors and control valves. In this regard, for estimated noise values resulting from many such characteristics, reference is again made to Nelson, D.A., and Cooper, B.A. : Reduced-Noise Gas Flow Design Guide for NASA Glenn Research Center, Proceedings of InterNoise 99, the International Congress on Noise Control Engineering, Institute of Noise Control Engineering (Washington, DC, 1999), a publication that has been incorporated into this by reference. In any case, once the appropriate mathematical relationship has been developed, a particular conduit can be verified substantially in real time. Once the digitized data associated with the verification of that particular conduit is received in the central processing facility, the necessary computational analysis is carried out, preferably by a digital computer program, to determine the gas flow velocity (or similar fluid) through the conduit. As mentioned above, by means of such calculations, the method and system of the present invention allows the estimation of the operational dynamics of the components or facilities of the production, transportation, storage and distribution systems for energy comforts. For example, in the natural gas industry, storage facilities receive and store the gas collected by production companies during periods of lower use (that is, the summer months) and then the gas stored distributed to local distribution companies during periods of high use (ie, the winter months) as generally described above with reference to Figure 1. Of course, the gas is transported in and out of such storage facilities through a variety of pipelines. By means of an estimate of the amount of gas flowing through each pipe as described above, coupled with a knowledge of the direction of flow through each pipeline, by means of a simple summation of the flow rates in each pipeline, you can determine the net injection or gas extraction for a particular storage facility. Then, as described above, this estimated value may be communicated to third parties through a controlled access Internet site or otherwise. Figure 7 illustrates such an estimate value of the output of a storage facility 16 to which three pipes 32, 132, 232 are connected. Each of such pipes 32, 132, 232 is verified by a package of one or more sound transducers 34, 134, 234 and associated verification devices 30, 130, 230. The data collected and processed by each verification device 30, 130, 230 are transmitted via a satellite link 104 to a central processing facility 110, where, by a simple sum of the calculated flow rates in each pipeline 32, 132, 232, the net injection or extraction of water can be determined. gas for the storage facility 16. With respect to the direction of flow through each pipe associated with an installation, various techniques can be used to derive the direction of flow. For example, pipe networks in storage facilities include components and similar mechanical structures, with the function of these components and structures that are frequently dependent on the direction of flow through the pipe. Thus, an evaluation of the physical layout of the pipe networks can provide some indication of the direction of flow. In addition, an analysis of the measured acoustic waves can provide an indication of the direction of flow in which certain mechanical components can be activated when the gas flow is in a certain direction (for example, a compressor for gas injection to the installation of storage) . For another example, knowledge of the operation per season or station of the storage facility as mentioned above, can be used to deduce the direction of flow. Regardless of the technique used, the net injection or extraction of gas for a particular storage facility can be determined. One of ordinary skill in the art will recognize that additional embodiments and / or implementations are possible without departing from the teachings of the present invention or the scope of the claims that follow. The detailed description and particularly the specific details of the exemplary implementation disclosed herein is given primarily for clarity of understanding and no unnecessary limitation will be understood therefrom, since the modifications will become obvious to those skilled in the art after reading of this disclosure and may be made without deviating from the spirit or scope of the claimed invention.

Claims (15)

1. CLAIMS 1. A method for providing information concerning the speed of fluid flow through a conduit to a remote end user, characterized in that it comprises the steps of: placing one or more sound transducers in proximity to the conduit, each sound transducer genre a representative signal of acoustic waves generated by the flow of fluid through the conduit; collect signals from one or more sound transducers; process the signals to determine the flow velocity through the conduit, and communicate information concerning the flow velocity to the remote end user. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that the signals generated by the one or more sound transducers are received and collected by a local verification device and then transmitted from the local verification device to a remote central processing facility for the processing of the signals to determine the speed of flow through the conduit. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that the one or more sound transducers are close but not in physical contact with the conduit. 4. A method for verifying the flow of fluid through a conduit and communicating the flow velocity to an end user, characterized in that it comprises the steps of: placing one or more sound transducers in proximity to the conduit, each sound transducer generates a signal representative of a measured amplitude of acoustic waves generated by the flow of fluid through the conduit; receiving such acoustic signals and processing the signals in digital data representative of the measured amplitude; perform a computational analysis on the digitized data to determine the flow velocity through the conduit based on the measured amplitude; and communicate the flow rate to the end user. The method according to claim 4, characterized in that the reception and processing of the signals to digitized data representative of the measured amplitude is carried out by means of a verification device in general proximity to the sound transducers. The method according to claim 5, characterized in that it further comprises the step of transmitting the digitized data of the verification device to a central processing facility for performing the computational analysis on the digitized data to determine the flow velocity through the conduit. The method according to claim 5, characterized in that the verification device includes one or more amplification and filtering circuits for amplifying the signal of each sound transducer and eliminating strange noise before processing the signals to digitized data representative of the measured amplitude. 8. The method according to claim 6, characterized in that the transmission of the digitized data is effected by a radio frequency transceiver associated with the verification device. The method according to claim 5, characterized in that the verification device is energized by a battery that is continuously recharged by a solar panel array. The method according to claim 4, characterized in that the communication of the flow rate to the end user is carried out by means of a controlled access Internet website. 11. A method for verifying the flow of fluid through a conduit and communicating the flow velocity to an end user, characterized in that it comprises the steps of: detecting an amplitude of acoustic waves generated by a flow of fluid through the conduit; generate a signal representative of the detected amplitude; transmitting the signal representative of the detected amplitude to a verification device; process the signal to digitized data representative of the measured amplitude; perform a computational analysis on the digitized data to determine the flow velocity through the conduit based on the measured amplitude; and communicate the flow rate to the end user. 12. A method for estimating the operational dynamics of an installation, characterized in that it comprises the steps of: placing at least one verification device in proximity to each of a variety of conduits selected from the installation, each of said verification devices includes at least one sound transducer to generate a signal representative of acoustic waves generated by the flow of an energy comfort through each selected conduit; each verification device receives such signals and processes the signals in digitized data representative of the acoustic waves; process the digitized data to determine the flow rate of energy comfort through each selected conduit; and estimate the operational dynamics of the installation based on the determined flow rates. The method according to claim 12, characterized in that each verification device transmits digitized data representative of the acoustic waves to a remote central processing facility for the processing of the digitized data to determine the flow rate of the energy comfort. through each selected conduit and estimate the operational dynamics of the installation based on the determined flow velocities. The method according to claim 12, characterized in that it also comprises the step of relieving the information related to the output of the energy comfort of the installation to an end user. 15. A method for estimating fluid flow through a conduit, characterized in that it comprises the steps of: placing one or more sound transducers in proximity to the conduit, each sound transducer generating a signal representative of a measured amplitude of acoustic waves generated by the flow of fluid through the conduit; verify the flow of real fluid through the conduit; compare the measured amplitudes with the actual fluid flow to develop a mathematical relationship between the measured amplitude and the actual fluid flow; and use the developed mathematical relationship for future estimates of fluid flow through the conduit or other conduit that has similar physical characteristics.