April 3-4, 2007 Project Review Conference 1 Rail tank car LEAKage detection System (RLEAKS) Phillip C. Womble Applied Physics Institute Western Kentucky

April 3-4, 2007 Project Review

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Rail tank car LEAKage detection System (RLEAKS)

Phillip C. WombleApplied Physics

InstituteWestern Kentucky

University

John SpadaroWest Virginia High

Technology Consortium Foundation,


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Team Members

• Applied Physics Institute (API), Western Kentucky University (API), 1906 College Heights Blvd #11077, Bowling Green, KY 42101

• West Virginia High Technology Consortium Foundation (WVHTCF), 1000 Technology Drive, Suite 1000, Fairmont, WV 26554

API WVHTCFFaculty Staff Students Staff

Phillip Womble, PhD, PI ([email protected], 270 7813859)

Jon Paschal James Lodmell John Spadaro, PI ([email protected], 304.333.6458)

Alexander Barzilov, PhD ([email protected], 270 781 3859)

Lindsay Hopper

Robert Hernandez

Mary Ann Harrison, PhD ([email protected], 304.333.6432)

Douglas Harper, PhD ([email protected], 270 781 3859)

Chris Davenport Robert Martin ([email protected] 304.333.6443)

Ivan Novikov, PhD ([email protected], 270 781 3859)

Eric Houchins

Chris McGrath

Brian Lemoff, PhD ([email protected] 304.333.6442)


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RLEAKS Overview

• The team of Western Kentucky University Applied Physics Institute (WKUAPI) and the West Virginia High Technology Consortium Foundation (WVHTC)are developing an autonomous Rail tank car LEAKage detection System (RLEAKS) for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) that will detect and locate pinhole-sized leaks in pressurized rail tank cars.

• While this project is specific for pressurized rail tank cars, the detection and location approaches could also be applied to other pressurized vessels including trucks and tank farms.

• This project applies to transportation rail car security by identifying leaking and damaged rail cars in a nondestructive, nonintrusive manner. It can provide early warning for the evacuation of personnel and civilians.

• This project helps secure the Nation’s rail systems.


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Landscape AssessmentNo equivalent product is known to exist on the market.

Related products:• Wayside detection systems for track, wheel, bearing, and other train faults• Nondestructive evaluation (NDE) systems for out-of-service evaluation of

rail tank cars• Leak detection systems for stationary tanks and pipes

Product differentiation:• RLEAKS is only known system designed for wayside detection of faults in

tank cars• Periodic NDE of tank cars is personnel-intensive, and is only done at

intervals of several years• RLEAKS specifically addresses public health issues, by finding leaks as

they occur• RLEAKS sensor array, localization strategy, and algorithm thresholding

conditions reduce false positives• Canopy can support other relevant sensors, such as chemical or

radiological detectors.


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Landscape Assessment

Company Handheld Fixed Markets ServedUE Systems, Inc. XControlotron Corporation X Oil & GasDelphian Detection Technologies X Oil & Gas, Chemical Manufacturing

CTRL Systems, Inc. XOil & Gas, Manufacturing, Transportation

CBISS Ltd. X Environmental MonitoringAcoustic Monitoring Int'l Inc. X Utility, Pulp & Paper

ProductsUltrasonic Gas Leak Dection Companies


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Fault Detection Companies Targeting the Rail Industry

Products

Company Trackside Onboard Capabilities

Alstom X X Trackside: Measurements of wheel loads & speed of passing trains; Automated wayside inspection and wear analysisOnboard: Track infrastructure variability; Locomotive engine performance

EMD X Locomotive health monitoring

ENSCO X Locomotive heath and ride quality monitoring

Lat-Lon, Inc. X Locomotive health


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Fault Detection Companies Targeting the Rail Industry

Products

Company Trackside Onboard Capabilities

Salient Systems [Industry leader]

X Wheel impact load detector (WILD); Hunting truck detection; Vehicle overload and imbalance detection; Low hose detection (dragging hoses); Truck Performance Detector (TPD)

StarTrack, LLC X Refrigeration equipment monitoring; Car condition monitoring; Hazmat shipment in tank car monitoring; Detection of mishandled cars

The Timken Co. X Monitoring of bearings

TTCI, Inc. [Industry leader]

X Rail flaw detection, cracked wheel detection, cracked axle detection, predictive car maintenance, bearing fault detection

Wabtec Railway Electronics

X Engine health monitoring


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Homeland Security Needs

• Approximately 1.7 to 1.8 million carloads of hazmat are shipped by rail annually, 2/3 of which are shipped by tank car.

• USDOT recorded 737 incidents of unintentional release of hazmat from rail cars in 2005.

• 79 were identified as serious incidents1, causing fatalities, serious injuries, major evacuations, or substantial release of hazardous materials.– 1PHMSA revised definition (2002) defines a major incident as one that: causes a

fatality or major injury due to the release of a hazardous material, causes the evaluation of 25 or more persons as a result of release of a hazardous material or exposure to fire, causes a release or exposure to fire that results in the closure of a major transportation artery, results in the alteration of an aircraft flight plan or operation, involves the release of radioactive materials from Type B packaging, is a release of over 11.9 gallons or 88.2 pounds of a severe marine pollutant, or involves the release of over 119 gallons or 882 pounds of a hazardous material.


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Customer Needs

• Reduce insurance costs for the railroad industry TIH gas shipments constitute only 0.3% of all rail carloads, but these gases contributes about 50% to the overall cost of railroad insurance.

• Improve safety of rail hazmat shipments through urban areas

Washington DC city counsel voted to prohibit rail transport of hazmat through the city, due to unacceptably high risk of TIH gas release. The law was overturned on appeal, because rerouting merely shifts hazardous materials risk to other communities and to rail track lines less able to handle such shipments. Nevertheless, similar efforts are under discussion in Atlanta, Baltimore, Boston, Cleveland, Chicago, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, as well as all of California.


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Unique Characteristics Of RLEAKS

• Autonomous, real-time monitoring

• Detects leaks from pressurized vessels

• Does not impede flow of commerce

• Provides localization of leak

• Allows visual inspection of train

• Other orthogonal sensors may be added


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Basic Physics

• Turbulence creates sound waves

• Frequency depends on:– Aperture size– Aperture geometry– Pressure Differential

• Strongly Angular Dependent


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Tank Car Specifications

• Capacities usually range from 10,000 – 20,000 gallons

DOT J-105 tank car for transporting

ethylene oxide


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Typical ChemicalsName Mole Weight Vapor Pressure pressure (psi)

Argon, compressed 39.95 500 mmHg @ -190 C 9.668Boron trichloride 117.17 4.4 psig

Carbon Dioxide, refrigerted liquid 44.01 838 psig (5778 kPa) @ 70 FChlorine 70.9 30-100 psi

Chlorine trifluoride 92.46 21.5 psia @ 21.1 CChlorine pentafluoride 130.445 3.4 bar @ 20 C 49.31

Dimethyl Ether 46.07 >760 mmHg @ 25 C >14.7Dimethylamine, anhydrous 45.09 1.72 atm @ 20 C 25.28

Ethylamine 45 1.18 atm 17.34Helium, compressed 4 1719 mmHg @ -268 C 33.24

Hydrogen 2.016 1 bar @ 20 C 14.5Hydrogen chloride, refrigerated liquid 36.461 42.6 bar @ 20 C 617.9

Hydrogen sulfide, liquified 38.08 18.2 bar @ 21 C 264Methyl bromide 94.94 1.9 bar @ 20 C 27.56Methyl chloride 50.488 506 kPa @ 21 C 73.39

Methyl mercaptan 48.1 202 kPa @ 26.1 C 29.3Methylamine, anhydrous 31.058 2250 mmHg @ 20 C 43.51Nitrogen, compressed 28.01 760 mmHg @ -196 C 14.7

Nitrosyl chloride 65.5 2.7 bar @ 20 C 39.16Nitrous oxide, refrigerated liquid 44.02 760 mmHg @ 88.5 C 14.7

Oxygen, compressed 31.9988 760 mmHg @ -183 C 14.7Phosgene 98.9 161.6 kPa @ 20 C 23.44

Sulfur dioxide, liquified 64.06 3.44 bar @ 21 C 49.89Sulfuryl fluoride 102.1 16 bar @ 20 C 232.1

Vinyl fluoride, stabilized 46 23.9 bar @ 20 C 346.6


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Gas vs. Liquefied Gas

• Gas means a material which has a vapor pressure greater than 300 kPa (43.5 psi) at 50°C (122°F) or is completely gaseous at 20°C (68°F) at a standard pressure of 101.3 kPa (14.7 psi)

• A liquefied gas is a gas, which in a packaging under the charge pressure, is partially liquid at a temperature of 20˚C


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Leak Measurements Taken with a Variety of Hole Sizes and Pressures

Frequency (kHz)0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180 200

Pow

er (

dB R

elat

ive

Uni

ts)

102

101

100

10-1

10-2

10-3

10-4

10-5

10-6


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Son-Caster Tone Generator

• Used to mimic leak sound

• Small with internal power source

• Will be used to simulate a leak during proof-of-principle testing.


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Simulating a Leak on the Tracks


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Transducer Data Compared with Train Spectrum

Black— 100 PSI, 0.02” hole at 30’

Blue– Train Spectrum

Red– Train Spectrum + Electronic Noise Source


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The Tower


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The Tower


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User Interface (Source Off)


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User Interface (Source On)


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Data Collection

• The sampling frequency of the ADC is 200 kSamples/s – The Nyquist frequency is 100 kHz.

• Every 20 ms a new audio spectrum is collected and its power spectrum is computed. – Ten of these power spectra are averaged together to produce an

average power spectrum response over a time frame of 200 ms.– The averaging helps smooth transient noise and the resulting

spectra are stored within the AVI file with the video data.

• The video camera produces images at the rate of 30 frames per second (FPS) but we only store every sixth frame for a rate of 5 FPS (or 1 frame every 200 ms).

• Every video frame has an audio spectrum associated with it


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Leak detection algorithm development

Candidate Algorithm Example

Algorithm computed in 10,000 point windows, with 8000 point overlap between consecutive windows at a sampling rate of 400kHz.

Q is 10 point moving average of total power in 65kHz high pass filter for each window.


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Collaborative Opportunities

• As part of the tower, we are inserting a radiological sensor

• This is the same sensor that we plan to utilize in a future collaborative developmental spiral with IT Resource Center for Homeland Security’s MITOC system

• Testing of this sensor will provide data to ITRCHS about ruggedness and utility of current sensor design


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Project Schedule

ID Task Name Duration

31 Buy COTS Technology 2 wks

32 Develop Data Acquistion System 10 wks

33 Develop Calibrated Leak 35 days

34 Mechanical 3 wks

35 Electrical 4 wks

36 Test COTS with Calibrated Leak 12 wks

37 Laboratory Data Finished 0 days

38 Initial Railcar Noise 30 days

39 Prepare for Noise Collection 2 wks

40 First Collect Railcar Noise 2 days

41 Analyze Railcar Noise and Make Subsequent Measurements 4 wks

42 Develop a Test Noise Source 5.8 wks

43 Test COTS with Calibrate Leak and Noise 2.8 wks

44 Wireless Communication 34 days

45 Define Info to be Transported 4.8 wks

46 Retrofit with COTS Tech 2 wks

47 Design Server Technology 20 days

48 Web Page Design 4 wks

49 Integration of Location Algorithm 4 wks

50 Cellphone/Satphone Broadcast 4 wks

51 System Design 30 days?

52 Sensor Design 30 days?

53 Design Microphone 4 wks

54 Design Sensor DAQ 4 wks

55 Tower Design 13 days?

56 Tower Installation 2 wks

57 Tower Installed 0 days

58 Prototype Testing 26 days

59 Test with calibrated leaks 4 wks

60 Develop Threat Algorithm 4 wks

61 Demonstration of Tower 0 days

62 Final Report 3 wks

9/5

10/27

12/5

May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug2005 2006 2007


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Scheduling

• Completed Tower in January 2007

• Began Evaluation of Tower Function in January 2007

• Requested use of remaining funding to upgrade hardware and functionality

• Demonstration held on March 15, 2007


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Summary List of Technical Challenges (UPDATED 3/8/07)

• Definition of basic physics of leak acoustics COMPLETED• Sensor requirements and selection COMPLETED• Gas composition impact on acoustic spectrum COMPLETED• Pressure change impact on acoustic spectrum COMPLETED• Railcar wall construction effects on acoustic spectrum

COMPLETED• Railroad background noise recording and incorporation into testing

environment COMPLETED• Testbed design and data collection COMPLETED• Comparison of the three array configurations COMPLETED• Algorithm selection – pretreatment, noise cancellation, leak

detection, and localization COMPLETED• Sampling rates and data acquisition system issues COMPLETED• Embedded system requirements and design COMPLETED


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Budget

Budget Spent Remaining

WKU $277,423 $246,610 $30,813

ISR $475,000 $475,000 0

Total $752,423 $721,610 $30,813


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Suggested Project Schedule

Task Name Duration Start

RLEAKS Year 2 174 days? Thu 2/1/07

Rebuild Software 27 days? Thu 2/1/07

Change Trigger 21 days? Tue 2/20/07

Design Detection Algorithm 45 days? Mon 4/2/07

Incorporate Location Algorithm45 days? Mon 6/4/07

Redesign Radiation Detector 77 days? Thu 3/15/07

Design Radiation Algorithm 45 days? Mon 7/2/07

Report 22 days Mon 9/3/07

Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov2006 2007


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Summary List of Technical Challenges for CY 07

• Continue to improve operator software• Automated detection algorithm (challenge to

test; not build)• Add localization algorithm• Improve radiation detection electronics• Implement radiation detection analysis software


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Commercialization Progress

• WVHTC has performed a marketing strategy plan as part of this research– WVHTC has identified the market segments,

acceptance barriers, and competition.

• WVHTC has identified (within its own organization) elements for manufacturing and marketing the system in the future.


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Potential partners

• Transportation Technology Center, Inc. (TTCI), – a subsidiary of AAR that is the largest rail

research facility in the world– Verbally agreed to participate in next

research development spiral with API and WVHTC


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Summary and Conclusions

• Planned Accomplishments vs. Actual Accomplishments:– We have accomplished every goal except for

the implementation of the localization algorithm.

• This will be implemented by next IPR.


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Summary and Conclusions (cont’d)

• Plan for next six months:– Improve tower components– Implement last algorithms and test– Add orthogonal sensors as budget allows and

test

• No budget or personnel changes anticipated in future

Documents

April 3-4, 2007 Project Review Conference 1 Rail tank car LEAKage detection System (RLEAKS) Phillip C. Womble Applied Physics Institute Western Kentucky