Grant: Collaborative Research and Development Grants

Canada is a large country with huge amounts of natural resources, including oil and gas. The distribution of these resources for internal use as well as for exportation requires various kinds of infrastructure, including pipelines. In this project, the research group of the Advanced Photonic Components laboratory at Carleton University will team up with Canadian company Shawcor to develop a cost-effective optical fiber based sensor network to be installed along pipelines for the purpose of triggering alarms in the unlikely event of a leak in the system. Continuous passive monitoring of the sensor network will result in the immediate identification of leak occurrences and position, thereby enabling rapid remediation of any breach of the pipeline in question and minimizing any impact of the breach. The technology to be used is based on a class of optical fiber sensors that was invented and developed at Carleton, and on the vast experience of industrial partner Shawcor in pipeline integrity and safety systems.