This paper introduces leak detection methods that involve the injection of a continuous fluid transient into the pipeline, creating a time-invariant system that is analyzed in the frequency domain. This method of analysis moves away from the conventional time-domain approach of fluid transients into an area where information concerning the leak is extracted from the frequency behavior of the pipeline system. Two methods of leak detection using the frequency response of the pipeline are proposed, along with the practical application of these methods in a realistic situation. The two leak detection methods are the inverse resonance method and the resonance peak-sequencing method. The use of pseudo-random binary signals for the generation of the frequency response of a single pipeline system can increase the signal to noise ratio of the data and allow efficient extraction of the frequency response information. The measurement position has been found to affect the shape of the frequency response diagram. As a result, the optimum measurement position for pipelines with asymmetric boundary conditions was determined. Preliminary numerical testing has found both techniques able to detect and locate a leak in a single pipeline configuration.
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