METHOD AND SYSTEM TO TRACK TRAJECTORY OF MOTION OF PIG Russian patent published in 2016 - IPC F17D5/00 

FIELD: measurement equipment.

SUBSTANCE: invention relates to systems for monitoring of condition of manifold and field oil pipelines, gas pipelines and oil products pipelines and may be used to track passage of intelligent pigs inside surveyed pipelines and detection of pipeline irregularities location. The result is achieved by the fact that the pig is sent inside the pipeline, physical values that characterize condition and/or characteristics of a pig and/or a pipeline are measured by a measurement system of pig and recorded into a pig data accumulator with linkage to time by pig clock. With the help of a recorder installed near a reference point of a pipeline they measure physical values making it possible to identify passage of the pig near the recorder, characteristics that identify appropriate moments of time of pig passage by the recorder's clock are generated and recorded into a data accumulator of the recorder. With the help of a transmitter located in one of a pair of objects, comprising a pig and a recorder, they send a signal with time characteristic, related to clock readings at the transmitter side; the transmitted signal is received by a receiver located in the other object of the pair, and a characteristic is recorded into a data accumulator on the receiver's side, which is related to time characteristic of the received signal, with linkage to the clock at the receiver's side. The difference in clock readings at the receiver and transmitter sides is determined, thus the value of time difference in recorder's and pig's clocks, and is used in the reference point to determine the pipeline characteristics.

EFFECT: increased accuracy of time detection for pig passage near reference points and thus accuracy of detection of pipeline irregularities location.

38 cl, 7 dwg