article-6: Bats inspire detectors to help prevent oil and gas pipe leaks

Némo Lemaire
02-09-2020
Credit: Achim
Credit: Achim

Article (URL) and word count

Vocabulary

Words from the text Synonym/explanation in English Translation in French
To corrode To damage / To be damaged by the action of chemicals, generally over a long period of time. Corroder
Pipeline Pipe / A long series of tube that travels underground and are used to trasport gas or oil over long distance. Pipeline
Wavelength - / The distance between two wave of energy. Longueur d’onde
To leak To escape / The escape of gas or liquid from a pipe due to a hole in the structure. Fuiter
Backscatter Diffusive reflection / The reflection of particles or waves back to the direction they came from. Diffusion des ondes
To probe To examinate / To investigate something in order to find hidden things. Sonder
To retain To preserve / To keep something. Conserver
Beam Ray / A ray of electromagnetic wave or particules. Faisceau
Defect Flaw / A problem or error that get in the way and prevent the good functionning of something. Défaut
Array Set / A group of things. Eventail
To yield To produce / To provide something that can be use. Produire
Chirp Sweep signal / High pitched sound produced, in this context, by bats which are able to bounce back to the ears of the bats. Allowing them to know the structure of their surroundings. Ultrason
Analogous Similar / Similar to another things in term of properties. Analogue

Analysis table

Researchers Lancaster university - doctorate in engineering: Mauro Licata, Michael Aspinall, Manuel Bandala Sanchez, F. D. Cave, S Conway, D. Gerta, Helen Parker, Neil Roberts, Graeme Taylor, Malcolm Joyce
Published in? Scientific Reports; under the name: “Depicting corrosion-born defects in pipelines with combined neutron/γ ray backscatter: a biometric approach” (01/07/20)
General topic? Scientists have discovered that a combination of neutron and gamma ray could be used to detect leaks inside pipelines in a similar manner to the echolocation used by bats.
Procedure/what was examined? 1) The researchers tried to find out a way to detect corrosion in underground and isolated pipelines since the usual method of using electromagnetic or ultrasound aren’t very practical for those. 2) They created a new technique, using the properties of both: neutron and gamma ray and their reflection. 3) Their new device produce a very thin beam of neutron and gamma ray and is capable of comparing the two electronic signals re-emitted by them.
Conclusions/discovery? This system allowed them to distinguish the thickness of steel and even worked with insulating materials (such as concrete and plastic), furthermore, any leaks inside the steel would result in a variation in the backscatter (making their localisation a lot faster). The new device could also be used for bridges.
Remaining questions? How can the speed of the system be improve.

Citation

For attribution, please cite this work as

Lemaire (2020, Feb. 9). Biomimicry: article-6: Bats inspire detectors to help prevent oil and gas pipe leaks. Retrieved from https://nemlemaire.github.io/nemo-lemaire-blog/posts/2020-02-09-article-6/

BibTeX citation

@misc{lemaire2020article-6:,
  author = {Lemaire, Némo},
  title = {Biomimicry: article-6: Bats inspire detectors to help prevent oil and gas pipe leaks},
  url = {https://nemlemaire.github.io/nemo-lemaire-blog/posts/2020-02-09-article-6/},
  year = {2020}
}