Monitoring technology of pipelines using fiber bragg grating and its application in landslide areas

The safety of long-distance oil and gas pipelines is seriously threatened by landslides. The traditional methods of monitoring are not convenient to establish sensing network and realize automatic data acquisition. The fiber sensing technology has been widely applied in landslide deformation monitoring. However, the fiber brag grating (FBG) sensors haven’t been used in landslide monitoring. Based on the FBG sensors, a remote monitoring and early-warming system for landslides and associated pipelines is put forward. It can monitor pipeline strain, soil-pipeline contact pressure, landslide surface deformation and landslide inner deformation simultaneously. A monitoring station using this system is established to monitor a huge slowly moving landslide and the pipelines affected by it in Sichuan Province. The station collected the deformation data during Wenchuan earthquake successfully. The analysis of monitoring results indicates that because of many advantages such as high flexibility to develop sensing network, low cost, high precision and long-term stability underground, the FBG system is suitable to monitor landslides and associated pipelines.