Bursts Identification in Water Distribution Systems
Date
2009-05-17
Authors
Borovik, Irina
Ulanicki, Bogumil
Skworcow, P.
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
ISSN
DOI
Volume Title
Publisher
ASCE
Peer reviewed
Yes
Abstract
The leakage reduction problem as a whole is complex and requires co-ordinated
actions in different areas of water network management, such as: direct detection and
repair of existing bursts, general pipe rehabilitation programmes and operational
pressure control. Water companies undertake a mixture of these complimentary
actions. General pipe rehabilitation is the most costly and long term action, but is
undertaken to improve a number of different factors including leakage and water
quality. Operational pressure control is a cost-effective action for reducing leakage
over whole sub-networks, and for reducing the risk of further leaks by smoothing
pressure variations and is the subject of ongoing research. Detection and repair
actions are targeted at sub-networks where bursts are present. Benefits of quick burst
repair include reduced water losses, reduced disruption to traffic, reduced consequent
losses (e.g. from flooding), and also reduced disruption to customers' supplies, which
is an important water industry performance measure. The existing methods typically
use passive identification approach whilst the presented approach is based on the
active identification procedure.
The proposed burst location algorithm is based on comparing data by means of
statistical analysis from a simple field experiment with results of water network
simulation. An extended network hydraulic simulator is used to model pressure
dependent leakage terms. The presence of a burst changes the flow pattern and also
pressure at network nodes, which may be used to estimate the burst size and its
location. The influence of such random factors as demand flows and background
leakage on the process of burst detection is also considered. The field experiment is
an extended fixed and variable orifice (e-FAVOR) test. During this test inlet pressure
is being stepped up and down and the following variables are measured: inlet flow,
inlet pressure (head) and pressure at a number of selected sensitive nodes. The
method consists of three stages and uses two different models; one is inlet flow
model (IFM) to represent the total inlet flow and another is the extended hydraulic model to simulate different burst locations. Initially the presence of a potential burst is investigated. If this is confirmed values of the demand, background leakage flow and burst flow in IFM are subsequently estimated. These are used to identify the burst site at the third stage of the method. The approach has been validated by solving a practical case study with correct diagnosis of the existing problems.
Description
Keywords
water distribution system, bursts detection
Citation
Borovik, I., Ulanicki, B. and Skworcow, P. (2009) Bursts Identification in water distribution systems. World Environmental & Water Resources Congress 2009, May 17-21 in Kansas City, Missouri.