Stretching across tens of thousands of kilometers throughout the country, oil and gas pipelines are the backbone of energy transmission. The terrains along the pipelines, however, are complex, leading to common problems such as pipeline leakage and oil theft to occur.
Harsh terrains and obstacles — such as reservoirs, lakes, forests, and steep slopes — also present challenges and safety risks to traditional manual inspection methods.
The answer to these issues lies in Distributed Fiber Optic Sensing (DFOS) technology. Featuring intrinsic safety, simple deployment, and all-weather adaptation, this technology collects and monitors vibrations in a specified monitoring scope for analysis and locating, providing a brand-new tool for pipeline inspection.
Huawei’s pipeline fiber warning solution
When traveling along an optical fiber, the light power decreases continuously due to Rayleigh scattering which results from the in-homogeneity of the refractive index during the fiber fabrication process. The changes of backward Rayleigh scattering amplitude represent a disturbance or a vibration along the fiber. Based on this mechanism, tech companies have developed distributed fiber sensors and that can be used monitor the status of underground fiber.
With over 30 years of experience working in optical technology and AI fields, Huawei has built a DFOS solution for pipeline inspection scenarios — the Pipeline Fiber Warning Solution.
Based on Huawei OptiXsense EF3000 and sensing algorithm engine (SAE), the system enables 24/7, automatic inspection and warning. When construction takes place around a pipeline, the optical fibers deployed along the pipeline collect vibration information and send it to an OptiXsense EF3000 deployed in a plant or valve station. In this way, the event identification accuracy is significantly improved, reaching 97%.
Huawei’s Pipeline Fiber Warning Solution uses an enhanced Optical Digital Signal Processing (ODSP) module with a built-in super blind spot error correction algorithm. The module corrects and shapes the phases of collected weak signals, raising the effective signal collection rate to 99.9%, which is higher than the industry average.
Huawei’s vibration pattern identification engine also analyzes construction events and restores the event process from multiple dimensions. For each construction vibration occurrence point, the engine is able to obtain at least 32 pieces of phase information, and extract multi-dimensional features, such as voiceprint, frequency, space, time sequence, and duration. In addition, multi-dimensional deep convolution is applied to identify and compare samples, enhancing the event identification accuracy to 97% and surpassing the industry average.
By cooperating with Chinese universities that conduct geological research, Huawei has imported a large amount of geological data — approximately 1000 new event samples every day — driving evolution and improving the sensing and warning accuracy. In addition, the OptiXsense EF3000 can perform iteration based on new construction behavior data, as well as different geological environment scenarios in the database.
Shandong Jihua Gas and Huawei jointly explore intelligent pipeline warning
Responsible for supplying gas to a large number of residential users and enterprises, Shandong Jihua Gas[J1] has more than 3000 km of gas pipelines at different levels. And to promote the application of fiber optic sensing and AI-based, adaptive identification technical solutions in pipeline construction, Shandong Jihua Gas cooperates with Huawei to spur innovation. Powered by Huawei OptiXsense EF3000 and SAE, Shandong Jihua Gas has built an intelligent comprehensive management platform to monitor and warn about pipeline damage events caused by external forces.
In the project’s first phase, Shandong Jihua Gas deployed approximately 20 km of underground pipelines, crossing complex terrains such as suburban areas, main roads, and rural areas. Construction samples — taken from excavators, tamping rammers, trenchers, and manual excavation — were sampled onsite, and models were built through training. For construction samples such as excavators, tests were performed repeatedly on different road sections.
According to test results, when disruptive mechanical construction occurs around buried pipelines, the fiber optic sensing system detects vibration information, quickly analyzes and identifies the vibration within a minute, and reports alarms and the information to the management platform. Based on the reported site information, monitoring personnel dispatch a work order to a nearby inspector to handle it. After receiving the work order, the inspector immediately heads to the construction site, verifies whether the onsite construction is legal, stops the construction if need be, and instructs construction personnel to restore the site.
The tests verify Huawei OptiXsense EF3000’s application capability. In pipeline operation and management, intelligent inspection technology effectively guarantees the safe running of pipelines and reduces the occurrence rate of pipeline leakage accidents, thereby relieving the economic loss and environmental pollution that would otherwise occur. The tests also demonstrate the significance of implementing automatic unattended inspection in the pipeline field to the pipeline network industry.
Xu Xiaoliang, head of the Fiber Optics Division of Shandong Jihua Gas Co. Ltd, stated: “Jihua has conducted a field technical test using Huawei’s optical sensing products. The detection and reporting accuracy is much higher than the industry average. In the future, we will continue to collect and update onsite samples to further expand the types of identifiable events and explore more accurate identification algorithms, in turn providing more efficient technical assurance for safety management in the oil and gas industry.”
Currently, Huawei’s Pipeline Fiber Warning Solution can identify external events caused by excavators, manual excavation, and heavy trucks. With comprehensive detection and accurate identification advantages, it ultimately helps industry customers safeguard oil and gas pipelines.
Under the theme “Unleash Digital”, Huawei Connect 2022 will take place in Bangkok on Sept 19 and in Dubai on Oct 12. The conference will explore how technologies like cloud, AI, and 5G can unleash value for oil and gas industry. Huawei will announce its newest ICT portfolios, products, and solutions – expect groundbreaking innovations that can help shape the future of industries. HUAWEI CONNECT is a key event on the global ICT calendar where we announce our newest products and solutions, discuss best practices, and explore paths to shared success.