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The commonly used cross-correlation technique for leak location requires that the acoustic speed is known and invariable. In practice, the gas leakage-induced acoustic waves propagate along multiple paths including in-pipe gas and pipe wall, and the acoustic waves in different transmission paths exhibit different acoustic speeds and different dispersive behaviors, which bring a great challenge for leak detection and location in the gas pipelines. In this study, based on the vibration theory of cylindrical elastic thin shell, the wave number formulae in different transmission paths are derived to predict the acoustic speeds and the acoustical coupling between the in-pipe gas and the pipe wall is analyzed to determine the dominant transmission path. In addition, the velocity dispersions in the dominant transmission path are suppressed by selection of a characteristic frequency band of the gas leakage-induced acoustic waves. The theoretical predictions are verified in the experiment and the results show that the theoretical acoustic speed is slightly larger than the measured acoustic speed. Thus, the theoretical acoustic speed formula is modified considering the effect of the structural loss factor and consequently the location error using the modified acoustic speed is reduced by two times compared to that using the theoretical acoustic speed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]