Automatic Guided Waves Data Transmission System Using an Oil Industry Multiwire Cable

Abstract

Alternative wireless data communication systems are a necessity in industries that operate in harsh environments such as the oil and gas industry. Ultrasonic guided wave propagation through solid metallic structures, such as metal barriers, rods, and multiwire cables, have been proposed for data transmission purposes. In this context, multiwire cables have been explored as a communication media for the transmission of encoded ultrasonic guided waves. This work presents the proprietary hardware design and implementation of an automatic data transmission system based on the propagation of ultrasonic guided waves using as communication channels a high-temperature and corrosion-resistant oil industry multiwire cable. A dedicated communication protocol has been implemented at physical and data link layers, which involved pulse position modulation (PPM), digital signal processing (DSP), and an integrity validation byte. The data transmission system was composed of an ultrasonic guided waves PPM encoded data transmitter, a 1K22 MP-35N multiwire cable, a hardware preamplifier, a data acquisition module, a real-time (RT) DSP LabVIEW (National Instruments, Austin, TX) based demodulator, and a human-machine interface (HMI) running on a personal computer. To evaluate the communication system, the transmitter generated 60 kHz PPM energy packets containing three different bytes and their corresponding integrity validation bytes. Experimental tests were conducted in the laboratory using 1 and 10 m length cables. Although a dispersive solid elastic media was used as a communication channel, results showed that digital data transmission rates, up to 470 bps, were effectively validated.

Effect of Essential Business Communication Practices on Consumer Choices in the Oil and Gas Industry: A Case Study of National Oil Corporation of Kenya

“…When the target of business communication is the internal staff in an oil and gas company, the choice of the communication channel may be limited by the circumstances of audio and visual communication. Trane et al (2020) and Li et al (2017), explored this matter and noted that the use of audio and visual communication in the oil and gas sector is effective in promoting the exploration activists of most companies. Using sound signals with visual output, the operator can determine the presence of oil in the exploration area.…”

Polyphase codes for multiplexed acoustic signalling and sensing on pipes

“…between sensor nodes. There is also interest in communication via acoustic waves, and transmission has been demonstrated on pipes, cables and plates [8][9][10][11][12]. Transmission has been over short distances (typically, a few metres), at frequencies ranging from 2 kHz to 2 MHz.…”