LEAK LOCALIZATION IN PIPE NETWORK

Abstract

The issue of leak detection is of paramount importance in the oil, gas, and water sectors as their most important and integral component of pipelines often fail due to one or the other reasons (including corrosion, human negligence, defects in installation/erection, manufacturing and so on) and lead to environmental pollution, waste of energy, fire or soil erosion hazards, water scarcity, and other social problems, and therefore, require immediate measures to minimize mass and energy losses. Among the number of techniques available in the literature, this paper revisits the one based on hydraulic principles of flow of water through pipes, viz., continuity and momentum and energy equations, and verifies it for its applicability using a large set of data derived experimentally, for various pipes and their sizes, flows, and leaks introduced at different locations, at the demonstration farm of Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee (India). The study finds that the available hydraulic equation for leak localization is valid only for long pipes, and not for short pipes experiencing the significant impact of leak-generated negative waves on inlet and outlet pressures, too sensitive for localization. The derived or proposed new (but more elaborate) equation not only works well for long pipe but also works for any span, size, and materials of pipe network thus, the promising results of this experimental study provide an enhanced insight into the problem of leakage detection.