System and method for determining range of possible locations of pipeline leak

A method of determining a pipeline leak and the leak location range;

• said method performed within a server computer system and comprising:
• 1) receiving a first set of field data points from a first monitoring device within a set of monitoring devices, each field data point within said first set of field data points including a timestamp and a corresponding time-varying signal, wherein said time-varying signal is a value of a parameter, said server computer system including a server computer processing unit, some amount of memory operatively coupled to said server computer processing unit, a server software application, and a networking interface operatively coupled to said server computer processing unit for receiving field data from said set of monitoring devices, each monitoring device within said set of monitoring devices installed at a joint between two consecutive pipeline segments of a pipeline, said pipeline having a set of pipeline segments, each monitoring device within said set of monitoring device including:
• a) a microprocessor;
• b) a set of sensors operatively coupled to said microprocessor, each sensor within said set of sensors adapted to detect values of said parameter of a flowing material within said pipeline;
• c) a wireless network interface operatively coupled to said microprocessor for communicating with said server computer system;
• d) some amount of memory operatively coupled to said microprocessor;
• and
• e) a time receiver operatively coupled to said microprocessor;
• 2) receiving a second set of field data points from a second monitoring device within said set of monitoring devices, each field data point within said second set of field data points includes a timestamp and a corresponding time-varying signal;
• 3) analyzing said first set of field data points and said second set of field data points to determine that a leak has occurred to a first pipeline segment corresponding to said first monitoring device and said second monitoring device;
• and
• 4) determining a probability distribution corresponding to a set of subranges of a range of possible leak locations.