Time–frequency dual-domain electromagnetic detection technology for buried pipelines

Monitoring and detecting buried pipelines under concrete pavement are often complex and difficult tasks. The time–frequency electromagnetic technology, with the fast information acquisition and strong anti-interference ability, is first applied in the buried pipeline inspection. The purpose is to verify if this method can monitor and detect the pipelines status change effectively, even if covered by concrete pavement. Three representative scenarios (normal, coating-damaged and leaking) and two types of pavement (plain concrete and reinforced concrete) are created and applied in the simulations with the finite element method. The simulated results are processed and analysed with the proposed method. In the frequency domain, the maximum change of the electric and magnetic field signals for the coating-damaged scenario from the normal one are 0.4% and 9.9% respectively, and 97.7% and 157.7% for the leaking scenario. In the time domain, the shifts of the electric and magnetic field signal peak are 6.2 μs and 6.5 μs respectively when the coating damage occurs, and 11.4 μs and 13.1 μs when leakage appears. The results indicate that the above technology is valid for buried pipelines. Moreover, it can be used to locate and identify the abnormalities and types of concrete pavement can be differentiated.