Gas Leak Monitoring Using Fiber Optic Sensors

The need to ensure the safety and integrity of gas lines has driven the development of solutions using fiber optic sensors to monitor leaks. Such leaks can be detected by monitoring temperature and/or vibration along pipelines using distributed or point measurement sensors. In this work, we experimentally demonstrate the potential, performance, and limitations of the leading optical technologies for monitoring leaks in low-pressure gas lines: DTS - Distributed Temperature Sensing, DAS - Distributed Acoustic Sensing, and strain and acceleration sensors based on FBGs (Fiber Bragg Gratins) and Fabry-Perot filters. The experimental results showed that it is possible to identify leaks using DTS if the pipe is wrapped in some material, such as conduit or fabric, and the line pressure is above 0.4 bar. Although DAS cannot identify leaks in a steady state, they can identify the transient generated at the beginning of the leak. Optical accelerometers can identify leaks and proved to be the least exnensive short-distance monitoring solution.