Multi-Sensor Approach for Monitoring Pipelines

Abstract

Pipeline vandalization is one of Nigeria's economy killer, since Nigeria economy to a great extent relies on oil in that capacity. Therefore, a third party damage to petroleum pipelines can be cataclysmic if undetected and prevented. This act results in budgetary misfortunes, ecological contamination and incessant death and loss of properties worth millions as an aftereffect of vandalization. Consequently, it is very paramount to protect these pipelines from vandals through intelligent monitoring systems. Several efforts have been made towards providing a reliable monitoring system for oil pipeline, however, no practically implementable solution have been achieved. Therefore, a pipeline monitoring system using multi-sensors is presented herewith. The sensor array consists of a Passive Infrared (PIR), vibration and sound sensor. An uninvolved infrared (PIR) sensor was utilized to detect intruders before they get in contact with the pipeline and for affirmation of intruders, sound and vibration sensor were set up. As the PIR recognizes an on-coming human the sound and vibration sensors affirms if the human is an intruder(s). An intrusion message containing the location of the vandals is sent to the appropriate authority by the microcontroller via a connected GSM module. Results obtained proved the system as a viable solution for detecting pipeline vandals.