How the Hydro-Tech ES900 & SS900F Sidescan Sonar Contribute in Finding Hidden Pipelines

Pollution source tracing an important challenge of industrial society. Nowadays and advanced equipment, such as sidescan sonars like Hydro-Tech's ES900, are being used to detect water pollution sources. The ES900 produces a clear image and has a strong anti-interference ability. Its high stability greatly ensures scanning data accuracy and allows you to finish the hidden pipe detection task successfully. The underwater sidescan sonar ES900 & SS900F realize the accurate detecting and positioning of the underwater hidden pipes through a real-time scanning sonar image so that the hidden pipe has nowhere to hide. At the same time, it also makes the troubleshooting work safer and more efficient.

Environmental Surveying Using Advanced Survey Technology

Preventing and controlling water pollution is an important part of ecological environment protection. Water environment monitoring and pollution source tracing is the basic measure. In the past, it was very difficult to realize this purpose via manual methods to accurately prevent pollution.  

Pollution source tracing is the pain spot of the industry too. Nowadays, advanced surveying and measurement technology had developed and there is much-advanced equipment being used to detect water pollution sources. They include underwater optical cameras, underwater imaging sonar, Sidescan sonar, water quality sampling (by analyzing water temperature, pH value, dissolved oxygen, turbidity, COD), etc.

Choosing the Right Approach for the Environmental Survey
Choosing the right approach can be complicated. First of all, the local Environment Protection Department is urgent to find out the pollution source, then they can make out resolving method. So that they can realize the sustainable development of the ecological environment.

Challenges and difficulties：
1）Surveying the 9km river, 6km of which is along the Industry Zone area. The current is very slow. Most of the river bank is hard and some are soft. The river is narrow and the two sides is shallow and full of seaweed. It is not convenient to drive a traditional motorboat. So unmanned surface vehicle is a good choice.

2） To locate the hidden pipeline quickly and accurately, it is quite important to select the right equipment to be installed on the USV. They could not be too heavy and should be low power consumption. Furthermore, the water is turbid and visibility is poor. So the optical camera equipment cannot be used. While water quality sampling can only analyse the pollution situation of the water nearby, but can not accurately find the location of the hidden pipe. Under this environmental condition, only the sidescan sonar can meet the project's requirements.

The Solution: USV with Integrated Sidescan Sonar

According to the on-site environment and customer demand, USV  integrated with sidescan sonar is the best solution to check and locate the hidden pipe, which flows out sewage. The Environmental Protection Department decided to conduct a hidden pipe inspection test via a small unmanned surface vehicle carrying Hydro-Tech ES900 series sonar.

1) The USV selected is a small inflatable boat. It has many features of lightweight, easy for transportation, big payload, long durability and stable driving attitude.

2) The Sidescan sonar comes from Hydro-Tech ES900, perfect for second development and integration into all kinds of small unmanned platforms, including USV, ROV etc. Since it has many good advantages such as clear image, manual automatic identification, strong anti-interference ability, easy operation and simple structure and friendly compatibility and so on.  

Installing the Sidescan Sonar on a USV

Hydro-Tech ES900 is very easy to install. Below is the quick installation through the mountain brack.

After adjusting the transducer angle and connecting all the cables, the engineers scan and surveyed the two river banks. Control the USV to drive at a uniform speed along the river with 5-10m distance between the bank. Scan the left bank first, then turn around and scan the right bank. When met with any suspected area or special terrain, scan carefully and repeatedly if needed. At the same time, adjust the sonar angle according to the river's current flow direction.   

Scanning Route: Along the river

Environmental Survey Result & Analysis

After the scanning & survey, it is evident that there are many hidden pipes in the water. With coordinated information of the suspected hidden pipe, the Environmental Protection Department accurately find out these sewage pipes, then array one particular person to double check locally and confirm that it was these hidden that caused the odour emitted by the river. The factories responsible for the pollution were ordered to rectify and clean this sewage in the industrial zone.

Suspected pipe 1

Suspected pipe 2

Suspected pipe 3

From this test, we proved that Hydro-Tech ES900 is not only a sharp tool to detect hidden pipes but also capable of accurately drawing any tiny target in water, including shipwrecks, underwater steps, grooves, dams and ditches etc.

Underwater steps

Shipwreck

Conclusion

Hydro-Tech ES900 perfectly solves the client's problems. It can produce a clear image and has a strong anti-interference ability. The high stability significantly ensures scanning data accuracy and successfully finishes the hidden pipe detection. More importantly, is its high stability which ensures that the survey data accuraccompletesnishes the hidden pipe detection task successfully.

The operating engineers on the shore can monitor the working state of the USV through remote communication technology. The underwater Sidescan sonar realises the accurate detecting and positioning of the hidden underwater pipe through the real-time scanning sonar image so that the invisible line has nowhere to hide. At the same time, it also makes the troubleshooting work safer and more efficient.