Systems and methods for detecting buried non-conductive pipes
A method for detecting a buried non-conductive pipe includes transmitting, by a radio frequency (RF) transmitter, guided RF energy through one end of the non-conductive pipe, receiving, by a RF receiver, electromagnetic signals due to RF energy leaks in one or more locations along the non-conductive pipe, and processing, by one or more processors, the received signals to determine a location of the non-conductive pipe. A system for detecting a buried non-conductive pipe includes a RF transmitter configured to transmit guided RF energy through one end of the non-conductive pipe, a RF receiver configured to receive electromagnetic signals due to RF energy leaks in one or more locations along the non-conductive pipe, and one or more processors configured to process the received signals to determine a location of the non-conductive pipe.
1. A method for detecting a buried non-conductive pipe, the method comprising:
transmitting, by a radio frequency (RF) transmitter, guided RF energy through one end of the non-conductive pipe;
receiving, by an RF receiver, electromagnetic signals due to RF energy leaks in one or more locations along the non-conductive pipe; and
processing, by one or more processors, the received signals to determine a location of the non-conductive pipe.
2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
determining, by the one or more processors, a distance travelled by the RF energy by determining a difference in time from when the energy is detected by the RF receiver versus when the energy was transmitted from the RF transmitter.
3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
detecting, by the receiver, a direction of the leaked RF energy; and
creating a set of crossing vectors to precisely locate the leak on the non-conductive pipe.
4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
filtering, by the one or more processors, the received signals using a band-pass filter; and
generating, by the one or more processors, a spectrogram of the band-pass filtered signals.
5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
modulating, by the transmitter, the RF signal to transmit 1000 Hz signals at a frequency of approximately 40 MHz or more.
6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the processing step further comprises processing the received signals using interferometry to detect phase changes.
7. A system for detecting a buried non-conductive pipe, the system comprising:
a radio frequency (RF) transmitter for transmitting guided RF energy through one end of the non-conductive pipe;
an RF receiver for receiving electromagnetic signals due to RF energy leaks in one or more locations along the non-conductive pipe; and
one or more processors for processing the received signals to determine a location of the non-conductive pipe.
8. The system of claim 7 , wherein a carrier frequency of the RF transmitter is approximately 40 MHz or more.
9. The system of claim 7 , wherein the RF receiver comprises an AM receiver and a directional antenna.
10. The system of claim 7 , wherein the one or more processors for determining a distance travelled by the RF energy by determining a difference in time from when the energy is detected by the RF receiver versus when the energy was transmitted from the RF transmitter.
11. The system of claim 7 , wherein the receiver is further for detecting a direction of the leaked RF energy, and the one or more processors for creating a set of crossing vectors to precisely locate the leak on the non-conductive pipe.
12. The system of claim 7 , wherein the one or more processors are further for filtering the received signals using a band-pass filter; and for generating a spectrogram of the band-pass filtered signals.
13. The system of claim 7 , further comprising:
a modulator for modulating the RF signal to transmit 1000 Hz signals at a frequency of approximately 40 MHz or more.
14. The system of claim 7 , wherein the one or more processors are further for processing the received signals using interferometry to detect phase changes.