Monitoring the Hydraulic Performance of Sewers Using Fibre Optic Distributed Temperature Sensing

Water

Philip Keenan¹  Yi Rui¹  Xiaomin Xu¹  Cedric Kechavarzi¹ 

[1] Centre for Smart Infrastructure & Construction, Department of Engineering, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB3 0FA, UK;

关键词: distributed temperature sensing;    hydraulic performance;    sewer blockage;   

DOI  :  10.3390/w12092451

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

The hydraulic performance of sewers is a major public concern in industrialised countries. In this study, fibre optic distributed temperature sensing (DTS) is used to monitor the discharge of wastewater for three months to assess the performance of a long underground foul sewer in a village in the UK. DTS cables were installed in the invert of sewer pipes to obtain distributed temperature change data along the sewer network. DTS generates a series of two-dimensional data sets (temperature against distance) that can be visualised in waterfall plots to help identify anomalies. The spatial and temperature resolutions are 2 m and 0.2–0.3 °C, respectively. The monitoring data clearly identify high-temperature plumes, which represent the flow of household wastewater in the sewer. Based on the analysis of the waterfall plots, it is found that the flow velocity is about 0.14 m/s under normal conditions. When continuous moderate rain or heavy rain occurs, water backs up from the water treatment plant to upstream distances of up to 400 m and the water flow velocity in the sewer decreases sharply to about 0.03 m/s, which demonstrates the ability of the DTS to localise anomalies in the sewer network.

【 授权许可】

Unknown