Efficient Transient Analysis Method for Leak Detection in Pipe Networks

With the trend of world population growth and the rapid progress in urbanization, urban water shortage problem becomes increasingly serious. In the urban area, the integrity and transportation efficiency of the Urban water supply systems UWSSs directly affect the health condition of urban residents and the cities’ economic development. At present, the world average leakage rate in UWSSs is around 30%, indicating the high urgency and importance to propose more effective leak detection methods and technologies in pipe networks. This research introduces a new two-stage strategy for the inverse transient wave analysis method which is based on the two-stage detection of unknown variables of potential leaks, so as to improve the efficiency and then the applicability of transient based methods for leak detection and analysis in pipe networks. Compared to traditional inverse transient analysis methods, this proposed two-stage method presents effective extension and application in complex pipe network system with highly accurate leak identification and detection. Preliminary numerical and experimental test results in this paper confirmed the validity and effectiveness of the proposed two-stage analysis method, which forms a solid foundation for further development of leak detection in pipe networks.