Maintenance Of Oil Pipelines Research Articles

The Oil Industry in Galicia until 1918 in Light of the Records of the Galician Governorate in Lviv

The files kept at the Central State Historical Archive of Ukraine in Lviv are of fundamental importance for research into the issues of the oil industry in Galicia. Of particular note is the largest ensemble in the archive – fond 146: Galician Governorate in Lviv, containing the records of the central government of Galicia. This collection has preserved a rich collection of materials representing various aspects of the development of the oil industry. They dealt with issues of the occurrence of crude oil in Galicia, the acquisition and exploitation of oil plots, the extraction and processing of oil, and the construction and operation of wells and refineries. The information on the state of the oil mines in Galicia, especially in terms of meeting technical conditions, fire protection and occupational safety, is valuable. An important place is held by files depicting issues of the creation of industrial infrastructure, including the construction and maintenance of oil pipelines, the construction of storage facilities, and the railway connection to the plants. The files also contain information on the establishment and activities of domestic and foreign oil companies and joint stock companies in Galicia. Also of interest are materials on the development of the labour movement. Keywords: records of the Galician Governorate in Lviv, kerosene, oil industry, mines, oil companies and joint stock companies.

Design of Ground Penetrating Radar Antenna for Detecting Soil Contamination at L-band Frequencies

Maintenance of oil pipelines is an issue of great concern for oil companies. Soil contamination is caused by oil leaks from underground pipelines. Ground penetrating radar (GPR) is a rapid and relatively inexpensive technique used for locating and characterizing soil contaminated sites without producing fractures and causing further migration of contaminants. One of the most critical hardware components for the performance of GPR is the antenna system. The present paper reports on the design and simulation of a pyramidal horn antenna operating at L-band frequencies (1- 2 GHz) to detect soil contamination. A prototype model of the GPR system setup is developed to simulate the electromagnetic fields in different soil types. The dielectric permittivity of soil, needed in order to carry out simulations during the design process, is measured and analytically represented by Debye relaxation model. The contrast in the dielectric permittivity between contaminated and uncontaminated soils is the most important parameter to be considered for detecting the presence of contamination. The application of GPR is proved to be well-versed in the investigation of soil contamination.Â

Autonomous system for oil pipelines inspection

Maintenance of oil pipelines is an issue of great concern for oil companies. Any possibility of leakage must be detected before the leakage occurs and a preventive action should be taken in order to avoid losses of oil and ecological disasters. One of the main causes of oil pipelines leakage is the corrosion of the bottom part of the pipeline due to accumulation of water and other corrosive substances. One of the methods used to check the conditions of the oil pipelines is the running of a data acquisition device through all the length of the pipeline (that can be km) to gather information about the corrosion and its position inside the pipeline. This device is commonly referred to as pig. The Brazilian oil company, PETROBRAS, wanting to have the technology of such device to detect corrosion in their oil pipelines proposed to the Department of Mechanical Engineering of the Escola Politécnica da Universidade de São Paulo a joint project to the development of a pig that could run uninterruptedly in long oil pipelines gathering corrosion data for the preventive maintenance of their oil pipelines. The result of the project was the development of an ultrasonic pig with 16 ultrasonic transducers with on-board energy system and acquisition and storage systems. Also, comprised in the presented solution was the development of a software to analyze the collected data and give the position of the corrosion spots along the pipeline. This paper presents in detail the implementation and design issues related to the development of the ultrasonic pig. Also, some experimental data will be shown as confirmation of the effectiveness of the developed system.