A method for measuring and calculating the elbow direction parameters of in-service pipelines

Pipeline integrity management is an important approach to ensure the safe operation of pipelines. The parameters of the pipeline elbow direction are the indispensable basic data to realize pipeline integrity management. It is in urgent need for the pipeline owners to get the information about the direction parameters of the pipeline elbows in the process of intelligent pipeline detection. In this paper, a method for measuring and calculating the pipeline elbow direction parameters was proposed. The MEMS gyroscope and the acceleration sensor are used as the main inertial measurement devices and they are integrated in the electronic package of intelligent pipeline detector, so that the inertial measurement data can be obtained while intelligent pipeline detection is carried out. Then, the mathematical model was established based on the inertial measurement data, and the computing method was also developed. Finally, this method was applied actually to the intelligent pipeline detection engineering. It is indicated that three parameters of pipeline elbow (i.e., curvature radius, deflection angle and deflection direction) can be measured while the detection cost is not increased, and it satisfies the demand of pipeline integrity management.