Abstract: The basic principle of leak location and leak signal models are analyzed.A variety of time delay estimation (TDE) algorithms such as cross-correlation(CC),generalized cross-correlation(GCC),and the adaptive least mean square (LMS),etc.are also studied.These TDE algorithms which show different anti-noise capability,are applied to diverse application scenarios.Experiments are conducted on a synthesis acoustic signal to estimate the time delay and compare the performance of the algorithms in the conditions that time delay is diverse while the signal noise ratio is equivalent and time delay is equivalent while the signal noise ratio is diverse.The cross-correlation method is used to leak location for oil pipeline,and the error of location results is not more than 5%.