Induced voltages on pipelines installed in corridors of AC power lines

An experimental reduced-scale rig was built to investigate the capacitive and inductive coupling caused by AC power transmission lines near unburied pipelines. A computer model for the experimental rig was created to investigate the different factors that may affect the coupling effect. The basic input data to the model consists of power line and pipeline geometrical configurations, conductor and pipeline physical characteristics including insulation and coating characteristics, and environmental parameters (such as soil characteristics, power source voltage, and equivalent source impedances). The model illustrates the effects of various parameters (length of parallelism, lateral distance, soil resistivity, current magnitude, and voltage magnitude) upon AC electromagnetic interference between transmission lines and nearby pipelines. The results of the computer model were verified experimentally. Good correlation between the experimental and software based simulated results is obtained, which validates the modeling approach of coupling between power transmission line and unburied pipeline.