A Fiber-Optic-Based External Pipe Sound Pressure Level Sensing System

Intelligent Fiber Optic Systems Corporation (IFOS) and Georgia Tech propose a fiber Bragg grating (FBG) integrated sensor system capable of measuring the pipe wall "breathing mode" in order to infer the fluid-borne sound pressure level (SPL) in a pipe. The proposed new measurement technique makes it possible to externally measure the fluid-borne sound level in a noisy piping system. The state-of-art FBG sensors will be capable of measuring vibrations of the pipe wall external surface for monitoring SPL in real-time with high sensitivity and high degree of accuracy. IFOS-Georgia Tech innovation is to develop and implement such FBGs as SPL sensors to be surface-mounted on pipelines in a removable configuration facilitating installation and operation in the field. Advanced signal processing and SPL calculation algorithms as well as computer models will be applied for simulation purposes. Potentially, the solution could evolve into an autonomous onboard monitoring system to inspect and perform Non-Destructive Evaluation and piping system, valves and pumps health monitoring.