Simple signal transmission using long steel pipe

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I am a mechanical/hydraulics engineer with an application which may be
more suited to you guys' expertise. What I want to do is transmit a
signal from a remote (up to 5km) device through a long piece of steel
pipe. The remote device incorporates a sensor which produces a simple
signal (on/off) which I would like to detect remotely. Is this feasible
to transmit a sigal (electrical or sound) without any signal boosters
etc.? If this is in no way feasible I have other solutions but this
would make a real neat, simple and cheap solution. Your advice/help is
much appreciated.

 

[Ross Herbert]

I am a mechanical/hydraulics engineer with an application which may be
more suited to you guys' expertise. What I want to do is transmit a
signal from a remote (up to 5km) device through a long piece of steel
pipe. The remote device incorporates a sensor which produces a simple
signal (on/off) which I would like to detect remotely. Is this feasible
to transmit a sigal (electrical or sound) without any signal boosters
etc.? If this is in no way feasible I have other solutions but this
would make a real neat, simple and cheap solution. Your advice/help is
much appreciated.

If the pipe is insulated from ground for its entire length then it
could be used in conjunction with an earth return to transmit an
electrical signal. However, it would not be allowed to be insulated
anyway due to the possibility of lightning strike or induced currents,
so that one is ruled out.

Sending an audible signal by mechanical means over the required length
would only be possible if the pipeline was not buried or mechanically
damped by mounting stanchions or concrete supports. Such supports
would very quickly attenuate any mechanical vibration set up by a
transmitting transducer. Since it would be impossible to construct a
5km pipeline without periodic solid mounting supports that one is also
ruled out.

Pipeline construction generally call for a buried cable or fibre or a
radio data system to convey signals.

 

[martin griffith]

If the pipe is insulated from ground for its entire length then it
could be used in conjunction with an earth return to transmit an
electrical signal. However, it would not be allowed to be insulated
anyway due to the possibility of lightning strike or induced currents,
so that one is ruled out.

Sending an audible signal by mechanical means over the required length
would only be possible if the pipeline was not buried or mechanically
damped by mounting stanchions or concrete supports. Such supports
would very quickly attenuate any mechanical vibration set up by a
transmitting transducer. Since it would be impossible to construct a
5km pipeline without periodic solid mounting supports that one is also
ruled out.

Pipeline construction generally call for a buried cable or fibre or a
radio data system to convey signals.

Can you generate soliton waves in a pipe?
http://www.ma.hw.ac.uk/~chris/scott_russell.html



martin

 

[Ross Herbert]

Can you generate soliton waves in a pipe?
http://www.ma.hw.ac.uk/~chris/scott_russell.html



martin

My intuition tells me it may be possible to induce a shock wave into
the medium being transported in the pipe but due to the damping effect
of frequent support structures it would quickly die away (similar to a
tidal wave or tsunami being impeded by striking a coastline). The wave
may travel unimpeded in the wide expanse of the oceans but it quickly
stops when it hits land where it expends its energy in cataclysmic
fashion.