A new segmentation strategy for processing magnetic anomaly detection data of shallow depth ferromagnetic pipeline

Magnetic anomalies produced by underground ferromagnetic pipelines because of the polarization of earth's magnetic field are used to obtain the information on the location, buried depth and other parameters of pipelines. In order to achieve a fast inversion and interpretation of measured data, it is necessary to develop a fast and stable forward method. Magnetic dipole reconstruction (MDR), as a kind of integration numerical method, is well suited for simulating a thin pipeline anomaly. In MDR the pipeline model must be cut into small magnetic dipoles through different segmentation methods. The segmentation method has an impact on the stability and speed of forward calculation. Rapid and accurate simulation of deep-buried pipelines has been achieved by exciting segmentation method. However, in practical measurement, the depth of underground pipe is uncertain. When it comes to the shallow-buried pipeline, the present segmentation may generate significant errors. This paper aims at solving this problem in three stages. First, the cause of inaccuracy is analyzed by simulation experiment. Secondly, new variable interval section segmentation is proposed based on the existing segmentation. It can help MDR method to obtain simulation results in a fast way under the premise of ensuring the accuracy of different depth models. Finally, the measured data is inversed based on new segmentation method. The result proves that the inversion based on the new segmentation can achieve fast and accurate inversion of depth parameters of underground pipes without being limited by pipeline depth. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.