Seismically Active Region

Pipelines are not always stable and movement can occur due to seismic activity or geotechnical phenomenon. Earthquakes often cause significant uplift and subsidence that can lead to ground displacement of several centimeters and in severe cases, up to few feet. While several methods exist for assessing the magnitude of earthquakes, none of these are especially helpful for assessing their direct impact on pipelines. Pipelines are especially susceptible to ground disturbances due to the long, linear nature of their paths that often pass through geohazard afflicted areas. Ground deformations can cause displacements of pipelines as well as additional longitudinal tensile and compression loads on pipeline sections causing failures, failures of below ground hydrocarbon pipelines pose a threat to people and the environment due to possible leaks or rupture.

Conventional monitoring techniques like strain gauges, IMU mapping or satellite geo-spatial analysis does not provide a reliable solution. MASiP Pipe System with its built-in real time monitoring capabilities provides a holistic solution including early warning of small movements ahead of any catastrophic disturbance.

The aerial image below shows ground disturbance analysis results based on satellite geo-spatial analysis using conventional technology, however such analysis is unable to confirm the actual impact strain on the pipeline due to this seismic / geotechnical instability.

The above pictures show the typical geo-spatial analysis results of ground disturbance measurements (left), that does not provide the actual impact to the pipeline and typical strain measurement waterfall with MASiP Pipe System (right), which would enable measurement of real time strain with very high resolutions.

MASiP technology would identify even very small vertical movement in the pipeline itself to within 200mm axially along the pipe which is far more sensitive than any existing systems.