Petroleum pipeline monitoring using an internet of things (IoT) platform

In this study, we present the use of an internet of things (IoT) analytics platform service to mimic real-time pipeline monitoring and determine the location of damage on a pipeline. Pressure pulses, based on the principle of vibration in pipes are used for pipeline monitoring in this study. The principle of time delay between pulse arrivals at sensor positions is also adopted in this study. An Arduino and a Wi-Fi module were combined, programmed and used to produce a wireless communication device which communicates with the ThingSpeak internet of things (IoT) analytics platform. A total of five channels were created on the platform to collect data from the five sensors that were used in the experimental test rig that made use of wireless communication device. Signal data was collected once every 15 s and all the channels were updated every 2 min. ThingSpeak provided instant visualizations of data posted by the wireless communication device. Online analysis and processing of the data was performed as it came in. A second test rig was built that made use of a data logger for processing of data. The measured velocity of pulse propagation using the data logger and air as transport fluid was 355 m/s. The computed estimates of event location for the 50 measurements taken ranged between 4.243 m and 4.246 m. This had a scatter of just 3 mm against the actual measured event location of 4.23 m. The experimental results obtained showed that the performance of the wireless communication device compared satisfactorily with the data logger and is capable of detecting the location of damage on real pipelines when used for real time monitoring. Using this communication device and an analytics platform, real-time monitoring of pipelines can be carried out from any location in the world on any internet-enabled device.