EFFECT OF PIPE MATERIAL ON LEAKAGE LOCALIZATION IN THE WATER PIPE NETWORK

Abstract

The major concern nowadays is to detect and locate the leakage points in pipelines carrying fluids like water, oil, petroleum and gas. Even though pipelines have primarily been used to transport many such fluids for many years, only in recent years research has been extensively conducted to know the causes of the leakages or pipe bursts, the behaviour of the distribution system and to minimize the losses. A mere human negligence, and defects in the manufacturing of materials and their installation may cause huge destruction and loss of energy and lives. Hence importance is given to inventing new methods to detect and locate these leakages. There are several methods already in practice. However, in every method of leak detection and localization knowing the behaviours or pipe material carrying the fluid is important. Not just the cost and availability of any material will suffice the purpose of having an efficient distribution network system. Different materials tend to behave differently for the same discharge and leakages. An experimental study is conducted at the project site of IIT Roorkee to find the effect of Mild-Steel, PVC and HDPE pipes carrying water. The study finds how the materials affect while deriving the equation for leak localization. Pipelines with and without bends were considered for a two-phased study. The data collected are further analysed to make results and conclusions on how the pipe material affects the leakage localization in the water pipe network. The study will provide considerable insights into the usage of different pipe materials for water distribution systems to aid leak detection and localization in distribution systems.