Transient wave-blockage interaction and extended blockage detection in elastic water pipelines

Extended partial blockages are common in pressurized water pipelines and can result in the wastage of energy, the reduction in system carrying capacity and the increased potential for contamination. This paper investigates the transient wave-blockage interaction and its application to extended blockage detection in pipelines, where blockage-induced changes to the system resonant frequencies are observed. The frequency shifting is first inspected and explained in this study through wave perturbation analysis, providing a theoretical confirmation for the result that unlike discrete blockages, extended blockages cause resonant frequency shifts in the system. Furthermore, an analytical expression is derived for the relationship between the blockage properties and the resonant frequency shifts and is used to detect the blockages in this study. The obtained results are validated through both numerical applications and laboratory experiments, where the accuracy and efficiency of the developed method for extended blockage detection are tested.