Thermometer makes leak detection efficient and effortless.
Polymer injection single-well pipelines have long suffered from frequent leakage and perforation failures. Some leakage points are located 30 to 100 centimeters beneath the concrete ground inside and outside polymer injection stations. To perform repair welding on leak points, accurate location identification is the essential prerequisite.
Inspired by the temperature-sensitive characteristics of infrared thermometers, technicians from the Gudong Tertiary Oil Recovery Center have adopted this device to quickly and accurately locate pipeline leaks under concrete floors inside and outside station buildings. The method delivers twice the result with half the effort.
Normally, the medium transported through polymer injection well pipelines to the wellhead is a mixture of polymer mother liquor and sewage, with a temperature of approximately 40℃. Due to differences in the compaction degree, density and pore size of underground concrete and soil layers, the mixed fluid escaping from leakage points migrates along areas with higher porosity, changing direction and extending outward. The migration distance can reach more than ten meters, and the fluid eventually seeps out at the weakest structural points, namely the overflow points. During migration, the fluid temperature gradually decreases. As a result, the overflow points show the lowest temperature, while the original leakage points maintain the highest temperature.
Accordingly, in practical leak detection operations, operators only need to hold an infrared thermometer and move gradually from the overflow point along the path of rising temperature. The measured value will keep increasing when approaching the underground leakage source. The position with the maximum temperature reading is the exact leakage point. Repeated field tests have verified that this temperature-based positioning method is time-saving, labor-efficient, and boasts a 100% accuracy rate.
This technology greatly reduces the scope of concrete breaking construction, lowers labor intensity, shortens the shutdown duration of polymer injection wells, and significantly improves overall operational efficiency.
Since 2009, this leak detection method has been applied to 15 well service operations with a 100% success rate. On average, pipeline maintenance time is reduced by 6 hours per well, the injected volume of polymer solution is increased by 680 cubic meters, and unnecessary downtime of polymer injection operations is effectively minimized.
