Remora

A clamp-on limpet that turns the pipeline itself into the transmission line.

What it is

Remora attaches to an oil & gas pipe and launches a radio-frequency surface wave that travels bound to the pipe's own outer surface, using the line as a waveguide instead of radiating into open water or soil.

Parts

Physics note

A bare conductor guides a Sommerfeld surface wave. At radio and microwave frequencies this is a bound guided mode, not an optical surface plasmon — periodically structured conductors are what produce genuine spoof surface-plasmon behaviour.

The device shown couples through its bolted baseplate, i.e. by direct contact with the pipe wall. That is a different proposition from the conical Goubau-style transition usually drawn for this job, and a flat contact does not on its own provide the impedance taper such a transition exists to give.

Concept study. Geometry and dimensions are plausible but not a validated design; no propagation figures are claimed, and the coupling arrangement in particular is unresolved.