METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR GAS LEAK DETECTION AND LOCALIZATION

• US 20080168826A1
• Filed: 01/17/2007
• Published: 07/17/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 01/17/2007
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Motorola, Inc. (Motorola Solutions, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Motorola, Inc. (Motorola Solutions, Inc.)
• Inventors: Schuette, Michael A., Saidi, Ali, Chiricescu, Silviu, Norris, James M.
• Application Number:
  US11/623,892
• Publication Number:
  US 20080168826A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 73/40
• CPC Class Codes: G01M 3/20 using special tracer materials, e.g. dye, fluorescent material, radioactive material

Abstract

A system includes a first gas sensor [110] to detect a first concentration of a predetermined gas and to determine a first rate of change in the first concentration over a time interval. A second gas sensor [115] detects a second concentration of the predetermined gas and determines a second rate of change in the second concentration over the time interval. A third gas sensor [120] detects a third concentration of the predetermined gas and determines a third rate of change in the third concentration over the time interval. The first, second, and third gas sensors each have a known location. At least one processing device [510] (a) determines respective distances between a gas leak location and the respective locations of the gas sensors based on the detected rates of change, and (b) calculates a location of the gas leak based on a triangulation of the first distance, the second distance, and the third distance.

Claims

1. A system, comprising:

a first gas sensor, having a first predetermined location, to detect a first concentration of a predetermined gas and determine a first rate of change in the first concentration over a time interval;

a second gas sensor, having a second predetermined location, to detect a second concentration of the predetermined gas and determine a second rate of change in the second concentration over the time interval;

at least a third gas sensor, having a third predetermined location, to detect a third concentration of the predetermined gas and determine a third rate of change in the third concentration over the time interval; and

at least one processing device to

determine a first distance from the first predetermined location to a gas leak based on the first rate of change, a second distance from the second predetermined location to the gas leak based on the second rate of change, and a third distance from the third predetermined location to the gas leak based on the third rate of change; and

calculate a location of the gas leak based on a triangulation of the first distance, the second distance, and the third distance.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one processing device comprises a single processing device.

3. The system of claim 1, further comprising a transmission device to transmit the location of the gas leak to a server.

4. The system of claim 1, further comprising an alarm to indicate a warning in response to any of the first rate of change, the second rate of change, and the third rate of change exceeding a predetermined threshold level.

5. The system of claim 1, further comprising a memory to store a lookup table, wherein the at least one processing device utilizes the lookup table to determine the first distance corresponding to the first rate of change stored in the lookup table, the second distance corresponding to the second rate of change stored in the lookup table, and the third distance corresponding to the third rate of change stored in the lookup table.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein in response to a detected air movement near the first gas sensor, the second gas sensor, and the third gas sensor being below a predetermined threshold amount the at least one processing device is adapted to utilize a gas diffusion equation to determine at least one of:

the first distance between the first gas sensor and the gas leak based on the first rate of change, the second distance between the second gas sensor and the gas leak based on the second rate of change, and the third distance between the at least the third gas sensor and the gas leak based on the third rate of change.

7. The system of claim 1, further comprising at least a fourth gas sensor, having a fourth predetermined location, to detect a fourth concentration of the predetermined gas and determine a fourth rate of change in the fourth concentration over the time interval.

8. The system of claim 8, wherein the processing device is further adapted to determine a fourth distance from the fourth predetermined location and the gas leak based on the fourth rate of change, and

wherein the location of the gas leak is further determined based on an averaging of the triangulation based on the first distance, the second distance, the third distance and a second triangulation based on the fourth distance and two of first distance, the second distance, the third distance.

9. A method, comprising:

detecting a first concentration of a predetermined gas, determining a first rate of change in the first concentration over a time interval, and determining a first distance from a first gas sensor having a first predetermined location and a gas leak based on the first rate of change;

detecting a second concentration of the predetermined gas, determining a second rate of change in the second concentration over the time interval, and determining a second distance from a second gas sensor having a second predetermined location and the gas leak based on the second rate of change;

detecting a third concentration of the predetermined gas, determining a third rate of change in the third concentration over the time interval, and determining a third distance from at least a third gas sensor having a third predetermined location and the gas leak based on the third rate of change; and

calculating a location of the gas leak based on a triangulation of the first distance, the second distance, and the third distance.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising wirelessly communicating at least one of the first distance, the second distance, and the third distance.

11. The method of claim 9, further comprising transmitting the location of the gas leak to a server.

12. The method of claim 9, further comprising generating an alarm indication in response to any of the first rate of change, the second rate of change, and the third rate of change exceeding a predetermined threshold level.

13. The method of claim 9, further comprising referring to lookup table in a memory to determine the first distance corresponding to the first rate of change stored in the lookup table, the second distance corresponding to the second rate of change stored in the lookup table, and the third distance corresponding to the third rate of change stored in the lookup table.

14. The method of claim 9, further comprising detecting a fourth concentration of the predetermined gas, determining a fourth rate of change in the fourth concentration over the time interval, and determining a fourth distance from at least the fourth gas sensor having a fourth predetermined location and the gas leak based on the fourth rate of change.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the calculating further comprises averaging the triangulation based on the first distance, the second distance, the third distance and a second triangulation based on the fourth distance and two of first distance, the second distance, the third distance to further determine the location.

16. The method of claim 9, further comprising predicting a future gas concentration based on a least one of the determined a first rate of change in the first concentration, the second rate of change in the second concentration, and the third rate of change in the third concentration over the time interval

17. A gas sensor, comprising:

a gas detector to detect a concentration of at least one predetermined gas;

a processor to determine

a rate of change of the concentration over a time interval; and

a distance between the gas detector having a known location and a gas leak based on the rate of change; and

a communication device to communicate at least the distance to at least one of a second gas sensor and a server.

18. The gas sensor of claim 17, wherein the communication device is adapted to communicate at least one of wirelessly and via a wired connection.

19. The gas sensor of claim 17, further comprising a memory to store a lookup table, wherein the processor utilizes the lookup table to determine the distance from the gas sensor to the gas leak based on the rate of change.

20. The gas sensor of claim 17 wherein the processor is adapted to utilize a gas diffusion equation to determine the distance from the gas sensor to the gas leak based on the rate of change in response to a detected air movement near the gas sensor being below a predetermined threshold amount.