2013 conference paper

A Sensitivity Analysis of Data Measurement Types for Leak Detection in Water Distribution Systems

World Environmental and Water Resources Congress 2013. Presented at the World Environmental and Water Resources Congress 2013.

By: M. Jasper n, G. Mahinthakumar n, S. Ranjithan n & E. Brill n

Event: World Environmental and Water Resources Congress 2013

Source: Crossref
Added: February 24, 2020

It is estimated that 15-40% of water is unaccounted for in urban water systems. This is mostly caused by small leaks, which are difficult to locate. Routinely measured pressure, flow, and water quality data can be used to locate leaks in the water network using an inverse modeling approach. For a known sensor configuration, the leak locations can be found by minimizing the difference between real and simulated measurements. However, when comparing measurement types (pressure, flow, or quality), some may be more sensitive to leak location than others. Furthermore, some measurement types may be more or less sensitive depending on the leak magnitude or the proximity of the leak to the sensors. The measurements types that are more sensitive to location will have a stronger signature and would need to be weighted more in an inverse modeling approach, especially in the presence of noise. Preliminary research suggests that water quality measurements are more sensitive to leak location when a leak is small, and that flow measurements are more sensitive when a leak is large. In this research, a series of sensitivity analyses are conducted on different networks to investigate the sensitivity of these measurements with respect to leak location, magnitude, and proximity of sensors to the leak location.