Natural Gas distribution system: overview of leak detection systems

Natural Gas (NG) is distributed to final end-users through complex systems inside cities where population density can be very high. Although safety standards have become always more severe, several accidents have been verified in the past causing the death and/or the injury of many people as well as property damages near to accident locations. Different types of NG detection system have been studied and implemented on NG systems to reduce the number of accidents caused by NG leakage. The paper reports a brief analysis of acoustic detection technologies and analyses the advantages and disadvantages of each technology