Patent ID: 9225915
Filing Date: 2015-12-29
Classification: G01J,G01M,G01N,H04N

Abstract:
1. A leak quantification system, comprising: an analyzer coupled to a gas imaging camera that captures images of a scene which include a hydrocarbon plume of unknown concentration, the analyzer including a machine readable storage medium that provides instructions that cause a machine apparatus to perform operations to quantify a product of a concentration and a depth of the hydrocarbon plume and a mass leak rate, the operations comprising: detecting each pixel that is included within boundaries of the hydrocarbon plume; detecting an average intensity of attenuated rays passing through the hydrocarbon plume for said each pixel within the boundaries of the hydrocarbon plume; detecting an average intensity of unattenuated rays, which are not attenuated by the hydrocarbon plume, for said each pixel within the boundaries of the hydrocarbon plume; detecting a temperature of a background for said each pixel within the boundaries of the hydrocarbon plume; acquiring a temperature of the hydrocarbon plume for said each pixel within the boundaries of the hydrocarbon plume; calculating an intensity difference between the average intensity of the attenuated rays and the average intensity of the unattenuated rays for said each pixel within the boundaries of the hydrocarbon plume; calculating a temperature difference between the hydrocarbon plume and the background for said each pixel within the boundaries of the hydrocarbon plume; using a pre-established intensity difference and temperature difference chart to determine the product of the concentration and the depth of the hydrocarbon plume; determining a size of the hydrocarbon plume using an optical magnification, a size of pixels within boundaries of the hydrocarbon plume, and a distance between the gas imaging camera and the hydrocarbon plume to directly measure two dimensions and to estimate the depth of the hydrocarbon plume; determining a speed and a direction of the hydrocarbon plume by identifying one or more unique features of the hydrocarbon plume and associating those features with previous frames recorded by the gas imaging camera; establishing a virtual plane perpendicular to the direction of a movement of the hydrocarbon plume to measure flux; estimating an emissivity of the background using direct measurement or industry standard values; estimating an absorption coefficient of a hydrocarbon molecule using industry standard values; and determining the mass leak rate from the product of the concentration and the depth of the hydrocarbon plume, the size of the hydrocarbon plume, and the speed of the hydrocarbon plume.