Leak detection in water distribution pipes using orifice plates and pattern recognition computation

Water Quality Engineering

De Silva, Dhammika ; Mashford, John ; Burn, Stewart ; Pollard, Chris

Urban Water Security Research Alliance

RP-ID  :  EP112192

学科分类：地球科学(综合)

澳大利亚|英语

来源: CSIRO Research Publications Repository

【 摘 要 】

Apart from the economic cost of lost water, leaks from water distribution pipelines increase utility expenditure due to a range of other consequences. As the established leak detection technologies are labour intensive and insensitive to small leaks, the method employed in this paper explores the viability of monitoring flow at different positions on the network and analysing this data through support vector machine computation to identify the location and the size of small leaks. Orifice plates combined with differential pressure gauges are used for monitoring the low flows. This approach was tested by simulating leaks of different sizes in a small network using EPANET hydraulic software and by measuring differential pressure in an experimental setup with an orifice plate. The modelling and analysis indicated leaks of 90 l.hr-1 could be located with 41% accuracy or within 500m at 92% accuracy. The paper discusses the limitations of the method and the options for improving the detection sensitivity