At TLE, safety and reliability are at the heart of pipeline operation. Our Internal Leak Detection Systems (ILDS) utilize advanced algorithms to detect and localize leaks rapidly and accurately.
API says leak detection often uses a multi-layered series of technologies and strategies, and the second edition of API RP 1175 adds the role of fibre-optic sensing. TLE supplies both layers.
Our Internal Leak Detection Systems (ILDS) utilize advanced algorithms — including E-RTTM, Statistical Analysis, and Volume Balance Methods — to detect and localize leaks rapidly and accurately.
Our Fibre Optic Sensing technologies transform a single optical cable into a multi-application monitoring network, combining Distributed Acoustic (DAS), Temperature (DTS), and Strain (DSS) sensing.
At TLE, safety and reliability are at the heart of pipeline operation. Our Internal Leak Detection Systems (ILDS) utilize advanced algorithms — including E-RTTM, Statistical Analysis, and Volume Balance Methods — to detect and localize leaks rapidly and accurately.
We combine high-quality instrumentation, redundant communication paths, and real-time data processing to ensure detection sensitivity up to 1% of flow within minutes.
System highlights
Place a leak on a pipeline, choose its size and press Play. The simulator runs a negative pressure wave, distributed acoustic sensing (DAS) and distributed temperature sensing (DTS) side by side, so you can see which methods catch it, how quickly, and which miss a small one.
Runs in your browser. Nothing to install.
API RP 1130 describes computational pipeline monitoring (CPM) as algorithmic tools that help a pipeline controller recognize hydraulic anomalies that could show a leak. Detection is stage one of five and draws on five methods, which are often combined. Pick a method, then follow the same leak through localization, verification, alarm and record, or let the sequence play.
Compares the product entering a pipeline segment with the product leaving it, corrected for changes in line pack. A persistent imbalance raises an alarm.
Tracks patterns in flow and pressure over time and tests whether the readings fit a leak better than they fit normal operation. Sequential probability ratio tests, for example, are used in some commercial systems.
Runs a hydraulic model of the pipeline from live measurements and compares what the model expects with what the instruments report. A difference points to a leak and helps locate it.
A sudden loss of product sends a pressure drop travelling along the pipe. Sensors at known positions detect it, and the time difference between them estimates where it started.
An optical cable laid alongside the pipeline adds a second layer along the whole route. Distributed temperature sensing (DTS) reads temperature changes, and distributed acoustic sensing (DAS) listens for the sound of a leak or of digging near the line.
Once an anomaly is flagged, the system works to localize it, narrowing down where along the line product is escaping.
Multi-stage alarm logic and leak verification check the event before it is escalated to the operator.
The alarm reaches operators through your existing SCADA, historian and alarm management systems.
Time synchronization and event logging stamp each step, so the event can be reviewed afterwards.
Turnkey internal and external leak detection for 8 refined-product and LPG pipelines, with telecoms, RTUs, instrumentation and SCADA.
We combine high-quality instrumentation, redundant communication paths, and real-time data processing to ensure detection sensitivity up to 1% of flow within minutes.
API says leak detection often uses a multi-layered series of technologies and strategies. These documents set the rule, the tools and the programme around them.
The 49 CFR 195.444 summary covers US hazardous liquid pipelines carrying single-phase liquid. Confirm which rules apply to your pipeline and jurisdiction.
US federal regulation
Requires an effective leak detection system, assessed against factors such as pipeline length and size, product type, how quickly leaks can be detected, and leak history. Any CPM system must comply with API RP 1130 for operation, maintenance, testing, record keeping and dispatcher training.
Computational Pipeline Monitoring for Liquids
Covers the algorithmic monitoring tools used to recognize hydraulic anomalies that could show a leak. The second edition was published in 2022.
Pipeline Leak Detection—Program Management
Guidance for creating an effective leak detection program, with a flexible framework for choosing technologies and systems. The second edition adds the role of fibre-optic sensing.
Straight answers on how TLE leak detection works, which methods it uses and how alarms reach your operators.
TLE’s Internal Leak Detection Systems (ILDS) use advanced algorithms, including E-RTTM, statistical analysis and volume balance methods, to detect and localize leaks rapidly and accurately. TLE also supplies external detection through fibre optic sensing, so a project can use both layers.
A leak moves through five stages. Detect: algorithms such as E-RTTM, statistical analysis, volume balance and negative pressure wave watch instrument data for the signature of a leak. Localize: the system narrows down where along the line product is escaping. Verify: multi-stage alarm logic and leak verification check the event before it is escalated. Alert: the alarm reaches operators through your existing SCADA, historian and alarm management systems. Record: time synchronization and event logging stamp each step so the event can be reviewed afterwards.
Volume or mass balance (flow in against flow out of a segment, corrected for line pack), statistical analysis (patterns in flow and pressure readings), a real-time transient model or E-RTTM (modelled hydraulics against measured hydraulics), negative pressure wave (fast pressure transients at known positions) and fibre optic sensing (temperature or acoustic signatures along the route). The methods are often combined.
Internal leak detection (ILDS, PLDS) works from instrument data such as flow and pressure, using algorithms. External leak detection uses a fibre optic cable laid alongside the pipeline, combining distributed acoustic (DAS), temperature (DTS) and strain (DSS) sensing. TLE supplies both layers.
Yes. TLE leak detection integrates with SCADA, historian and alarm management systems, and uses time synchronization and event logging so each step of an event is stamped.
No method guarantees that every leak is found or located accurately. Performance depends on pipeline conditions, instrument quality, model calibration, communications and the detection method, which is why platforms often combine several methods.
TLE lists compliance with API 1130, API 1149, API 1155, API 1175 and ISO standards. See the compliance standards section on this page.
How mass balance, RTTM, statistical and pressure-wave methods differ, and why high-consequence lines pair them with external sensing.
What each method sees, where each is blind, and when to use both.
What each document covers, how they fit together and what to evidence.
Connect with our technical specialists today to design a system that fits your operational vision.