Ultrasonic Leak Detectors

Ultrasonic leak detectors operate very differently than other leak detectors. While most leak detectors look for traces of specific gases seeping from leaks, ultrasonic leak detectors identify the sound waves emitted when gas escapes through a leak.

When gas escapes a pressurized line, it generates a sound in the range of 25 kHz to 10 MHz, well above the frequencies the human ear is sensitive to but in a range easily identifiable to ultrasonic sensors. When the detector senses ultrasonic frequencies they are isolated from normal background noise, amplified, and converted to a frequency audible to humans.

Since ultrasonic gas detectors search for the sounds of leaks rather than escaping gases, they are able to detect leaks of any gas type. Though they are unable to measure gas concentration, the device is able to determine the leak rate of an escaping gas because the ultrasonic sound level depends on the gas pressure and size of the leak.

Ultrasonic gas detectors work in just about any environment but they are especially useful for remote sensing in outdoor environments where gases can quickly dissipate before reaching solid-state or heated diode sensors which require contact with the gas escaping from a leak to identify the leak.