Detection of leaks in vessels
First Claim
1. A method for locating a leak in a vessel which has an acoustic transmission line characteristic, comprising:
- placing at least one remote acoustic signal transducer at a selected location adjacent the vessel for converting acoustic signals from the vessel into an electric signal in the transducer;
continuously transmitting the electric signal to a central processing station;
providing transducer location information and the acoustic transmission line characteristic of the vessel, to the central processing station;
identifying acoustic features of an acoustic signal generated by a leak in the vessel using cepstrum analysis at the central processing station, to identify the acoustic features;
extracting from the electric signal, cepstrum coefficients;
detecting the existence of a leak in the vessel by subjecting the electric signal to pattern recognition analysis using the cepstrum coefficients to determine the presence of the acoustic features in the electric signal, the presence of the acoustic features indicating the presence of a leak in the vessel; and
using the acoustic transmission line characteristic of the vessel to locate the leak in the vessel, with respect to the transducer which is at the selected location.
1 Assignment
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Accused Products
Abstract
An apparatus and process for determining the existence and location of a leak in a vessel such as a container or an above ground or underground pipe, comprises a plurality of remote acoustic transmission sensor units distributed along the pipe and each containing equipment for analyzing acoustic signals from the pipe. The equipment includes a mechanism for identifying acoustic features of the acoustic signals which distinguish the acoustic signals of a leak from ambient acoustic signals. A control unit is connected to each of the remote units and includes additional equipment for further analyzing the signals to determine the proximity of the signal to a particular remote unit and, using the amplitude of the signal and the transmission characteristics of the pipe, determining the location of the leak.
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Citations
14 Claims
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1. A method for locating a leak in a vessel which has an acoustic transmission line characteristic, comprising:
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placing at least one remote acoustic signal transducer at a selected location adjacent the vessel for converting acoustic signals from the vessel into an electric signal in the transducer; continuously transmitting the electric signal to a central processing station; providing transducer location information and the acoustic transmission line characteristic of the vessel, to the central processing station; identifying acoustic features of an acoustic signal generated by a leak in the vessel using cepstrum analysis at the central processing station, to identify the acoustic features; extracting from the electric signal, cepstrum coefficients; detecting the existence of a leak in the vessel by subjecting the electric signal to pattern recognition analysis using the cepstrum coefficients to determine the presence of the acoustic features in the electric signal, the presence of the acoustic features indicating the presence of a leak in the vessel; and using the acoustic transmission line characteristic of the vessel to locate the leak in the vessel, with respect to the transducer which is at the selected location. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
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8. An apparatus for detecting a leak in a vessel having an acoustic transmission line characteristic, comprising:
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at least one remote acoustic transducer at a selected location along the vessel, responsive to acoustic energy from the vessel at the selected location, to generate an electric signal in the transducer; a central processor remotely located from the transducer and containing data about the acoustic transmission line characteristic for the vessel and data describing acoustic features of an acoustic signal generated by a leak in the vessel; the central processor also including program and analysis means and being operatively connected to the transducer, the program means subjecting the electric signal to pattern recognition analysis to determine the presence of the acoustic features in each signal using cepstrum coefficients, the presence of the acoustic features indicating the presence of a leak in the vessel and thus detection of the leak, the program means also using an attenuation of an amplitude of the electric signal containing the acoustic features to locate the leak with respect to the selected location of the transducer using the acoustic transmission line characteristic of the vessel. - View Dependent Claims (9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14)
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Specification