Detection of encroachment on pipeline right-of-way is important for pipeline safety. An effective system can provide on-time warning while reducing the probability of false alarms. There are a number of industry and academic developments to tackle this problem. This thesis is the first to study the use of a wireless sensor network for pipeline right-of-way encroachment detection. In the proposed method, each sensor node in the network is responsible for detecting and transmitting vibration signals caused by encroachment activities to a base station (computer center). The base station monitors and analyzes the signals. If an encroachment activity is detected, the base station will send a warning signal. We describe such a platform with hardware configuration and software controls, and the results demonstrate that the platform is able to report our preliminary experiments in detecting digging activities by a tiller in the natural and automotive noise.

With over 830,000 km of operating pipeline in Canada alone, their safe and continued functioning underpins much of daily life. A key type of risk associated with pipelines is third-party damage, damage caused by actions not associated with the pipelines normal operation. The question of whether the pressurized structure like pipeline or pressure vessel would undergo “unzipping” due to the third-party impact is crucial for the safety of pipelines or pressure vessels in service needs to be answered. Thus, we endeavour to develop a methodology for assessment of design solutions effectiveness to prevent a pipeline or pressure vessel failure in an abrupt explosion-like fashion due to third-party damage. Model of crack propagation determining whether the “unzipping” rupture will occur is viewed as a key element in the safety-driven design procedure providing significant effect on the safety of operation. The crack propagation modeling is achieved through the use of nonlinear fracture mechanics technique. The method of singular integral equations is used to calculate the critical stress required for the catastrophic failure of pipeline or pressure vessel damaged due to third-party interference. The model was implemented as a FORTRAN program. Testing of the developed numerical tool was performed using experimental data available in the literature, with the results showing promising agreement. / February 2016