Abstract: A system and method for continuous detection of impacts on pipelines for fluid transportation, particularly on pipelines placed on the seabed. The system includes at least two sensors each installed in correspondence with an end of a section subject to detection of a pipeline. A first sensor of the at least two sensors is configured to detect first acoustic waves, which propagate along a first transmission phase associated with the pipeline, and a second sensor of the at least two sensors is configured to detect second acoustic waves which propagate along a second transmission phase associated with the pipeline. The second acoustic waves have different elastic features with respect to the first acoustic waves.

Abstract: An apparatus and method for measuring spatial movements of plant structures, such as pipes, due for example to movement of the ground in presence of landslide phenomena, subsidence, collapse, or differential settling. The measuring apparatus includes at least one ground station that communicates with at least one corresponding signal-sending satellite station, the ground station being connected in a movable manner to a support constrainable in a fixed manner to the plant structure, the ground structure having an initial azimuthal orientation and an initial azimuthal height. The ground station is moved with respect to the support via a mechanism for adjusting the orientation and height of the same to compensate for an instantaneous orientation and height that are different from the initial orientation and height.

Abstract: With a certain pipeline, either buried or deposited on a sea/lake bottom, the formation of critical faults is determined and localized, which arise in the walls of the pipeline, or the development of an already localized fault is monitored, through sensors regularly distributed along the pipeline, and fixed to the same by means of a plate equipped with a pass-through hole in which the sensor is inserted.

Abstract: With a certain pipeline, either underground or deposited on a sea/lake bottom, the formation of critical faults is determined and localized, which arise in the walls of the pipeline, or the growth of an already localized fault is monitored, through a method which detects, by acoustic sensors regularly distributed along the pipeline, the ultrasounds diffused along the walls of the pipeline itself upon the formation of a critical fault, or when a controlled fault increases, and processing, by a remote processor, the digital signals associated with the sound waves to identify the position or evaluate the development of a critical fault.

Abstract: A process is described for forming a silicon carbide coating on nickel-based superalloys by:nitriding the alloy or depositing a titanium nitride film on the alloy by reactive sputtering;vapor-phase chemical deposition of a thin film of titanium nitride;annealing in a nitrogen and hydrogen atmosphere;vapor-phase chemical deposition of a silicon carbon layer.