Oil Pipeline Fault Detection System Determines Material Permittivity at Microwave Frequencies

Researching fault location techniques for the oil industry requires data on the complex permittivity of the polyamide Rilsan at microwave frequencies. Rilsan is a vital material used in oil pipe construction. Currently there is no published data for the complex permittivity of Rilsan. The task for this project was to develop an accurate method to measure the complex permittivity of Rilsan to gain an understanding of the dielectric relaxations that occur within it. A fast, accurate method was developed using a vector network analyzer (VNA) and rectangular waveguide.