SBIR-STTR Award

A low cost integrated corrosion health monitoring system is proposed to predict the degradation of utility pipeline infrastructure. The end-to-end system includes a suite of sensors to sense the corrosive environment, an autonomous device that measures the corrosion by combining the sensor inputs, and an analytical engine that combines domain knowledge with the observed phenomenon to infer the degree of corrosion and predict the pipeline degradation. The proposed system will operate in the field on a periodic or continuous basis with minimal maintenance. The devices will be able to measure, store and transport the data autonomously. It is designed to be inexpensive, reusable, easy to deploy, and unobtrusive. The vision is to develop a ubiquitous monitoring network that while making local measurements, collaborates with other devices to contribute to local (component level) and global situation awareness of the asset conditions.

Keywords:
Corrosion, Pipeline, Sensors, Wireless, Prognostication

Early detection of corrosion or the advent of corrosive environments in nominally protected assets, and monitoring its extent can help control corrosion initiated failures and predict the degradation or useful remaining life of utility pipeline infrastructure. Although preventive maintenance and periodic visual inspections are utilized to monitor damage and assess costs of corrosion, an autonomous monitoring system is desired to reduce maintenance costs and improve monitoring efficiency. An integrated sensor suite that measures true corrosion rates, corrosive damage or corrosivity autonomously and in real-time communicate this information to an analysis hub is being proposed here.

Keywords:
Sensors, Corrosion, Wireless, Water, Pipelines, Wifi, Remote Monitoring