Because the pipeline has unique advantages in terms of transport of liquids, gases, slurries and other bulk goods, at present, has become the future of railways, highways, waterways, air transport fifth largest transport. Energy transmission pipeline is considered to be the most dependable and economical method. However, with the growth of pipeline service time gradually aging, or subject to corrosion and other damage factors in a variety of media, so that the pipeline leak. 

Leakage is due to the external sides of the so-called closed containers, pipes, equipment, etc. there is a pressure difference in the course of its use, not allow movement of the internal parts of the medium through the holes, and other defects in the capillary oozing, or allow the flow of leakage flows of the site more than the allowable amount of a phenomenon. Leakage and leakage channel is required pressure difference, the pressure difference is the root cause of the leak, failure facilities material is the direct cause of leaks. There are some additional human-induced leakage, such as paralysis negligence, neglect safety, mismanagement, failure illegal operation and sealing parts, such as sealed design is unreasonable, poor manufacturing quality, not installed correctly and so on. 

Pipeline leak detection technology becomes the key issue of pipeline safety operation must first be resolved. Different forms pipeline transport substances, pipeline leak detection method is not the same thing, following the transport of gas, liquid pipeline leak detection method to classify when introduced. 

1. Direct observation method (this method is to rely on an experienced plumber or a trained animal inspections pipeline through look, smell, hearing, or other means to determine whether there is a leak.) 

2. Smart climbing machine inner tube (climbing machines are widely used in the pipeline industry, if the configuration of various sensors, will be able to climb machine composed of intelligent detection system currently climbing machine can use soundness test tube inside pressure, flow, temperature, and the wall.) 

3. Probing ball method (to detect the ball along the line detection, the use of ultrasound technology or magnetic flux leakage technology to collect large amounts of data, and the resulting data to detect the presence of a built-in dedicated post doc analysis of data in memory to determine whether the pipeline corrosion, perforation, that is, whether there is a leak.) 

4. Fiber optic leak detection method (including quasi-distributed optical fiber leak detection, multi-fiber probe telemetry, plastic-coated silica (PCS) fiber optic sensor leak detection, leak detection fiber optic temperature sensor which quasi-distributed optical fiber leak detection technology has been relatively mature.) 

5. GPS (Global Positioning System) time stamp method (using GPS synchronized time signal synchronization pulse signal is to strengthen relationships between sensor data collected on the basis of negative pressure wave were identified upstream and downstream pipeline leak points by converting the sampling frequency and time tag timestamp difference leak negative pressure wave velocity, and then use the leak was detected on the downstream leakage characteristics of the signal can determine the location of pipeline leaks.) 
6. Ultrasonic flow measurement technology leak (leak ultrasonic flow measurement is a more economical, convenient and easy to install and maintain the technology.) 
7. Based SCADA System Act (SCADA systems are SupervisioryControlandDataAcquisition short, the supervisory control and data acquisition systems which use computer technology to collect field data, transmitted to the monitoring center via a communication network, the monitoring center to monitor the operation of the country, and issued a directive to health control.) 
8. Model-based approach (to establish real-time dynamic model of the pipe, using the model parameters of the pipeline system for online estimates, the estimates process in accordance with a specific algorithm for leakage fault diagnosis, model-based approach which is the basic idea.)