Experimental results on acoustic communication channels in pipelines

Abstract

Transmission of information and data through pipelines using acoustic waves is a useful and practical approach in remote sensing, telemetry and monitoring applications. The data to be transmitted is first modulated by an actuator on acoustic waves, to travel through the body of the pipeline. At the receiver side, strain sensors and triaxial accelerometers can be used to receive and demodulate the data [E. Zhang and A. Abdi, “Communication rate increase in drill strings of oil and gas wells using multiple actuators,” Sensors 19 1337 (2019)]. Understanding the characteristics of the strain and acceleration communication channels in pipelines is of interest, for effective communication and telemetry system design. In this paper, we use the data measured by the strain and triaxial accelerometer sensors, to study several essential communication characteristics of the strain and acceleration channels in pipes, such as frequency responses, possible correlations among different channels, and signal-to-noise ratios of different channels. Results of this study are useful for proper design and optimization of acoustic communication and telemetry systems operating through pipelines. [The work is supported in part by NSF.]