Acoustic diagnostics of damages in pipeline networks

Summary

Every year hundreds of failures in water distribution networks not only lead to disruption of water supply and water losses, but also cause damage to urban infrastructure and private property of the population. Water leaks often cause soil washing, sinkholes, accidents and even fatalities. Herewith, not only direct water losses and energy consumption of the water supply system increase, but also increases the risk of third-party material costs. Significant volumes of water are also lost due to unauthorized water use. Therefore, the availability of a system for detecting and monitoring leaks in every water supply system is essential. The most popular way of fault location is the acoustic method of monitoring water pipes. This method is applied in three main ways, complementing each other: acoustic listening, correlation and zone control. A comprehensive acoustic survey is the best approach to inspecting pipeline networks and solving the problems of leak detection, which provides a significant reduction in water losses up to 5–0%!

Key words

water supply networks , water leaks , acoustic monitoring method , electroacoustical leak , correlation detector , zone control