Weak Pipeline Leak Signal Enhancement Method

In pipeline transportation, the detection of weak leak signals is challenging due to factors such as propagation attenuation and noise interference. To address this issue, this article proposes a signal enhancement method that combines optimal signal filtering and active suppression of background noise based on the multiscale representation (MSR) of signal prominence. The optimal filtering parameters can be directly determined according to the minimum MSR value of signal prominence without the need for setting specific thresholds or relying on expert experience. Small and slowly increasing leak signals are effectively enhanced in a unified approach by adjusting the discretization frequency and the wavelet filter scale. Experimental results show that the proposed method can significantly enhance weak leak signals, and the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of weak leak signals obtained using the proposed method is found to be 10.82 and 11.48 dB higher compared to the wavelet soft threshold denoising and the empirical mode decomposition (EMD) cross-correlation method, respectively. The proposed method has the potential to improve the accuracy of weak leak detection.