ABSTRACT

Managing pipe breaks in water supply networks has been a challenge for water utilities around the world. In order to transform from reactive to proactive management of pipe breaks, South Australia Water Corporation (SA Water) has invested more than 4 million dollars to set up a Smart Water Network (SWN), in the central business district (CBD) of Adelaide. The network includes 305 permanent accelerometers that continuously monitor the ‘noise level’ in the water network. When a new pipe crack forms, the baseline noise level of the continuous measurements increases (relative to ‘normal’ network and other ‘environmental’ diurnal noise variations). This research develops a technique for automated pipe crack detection by detecting baseline changes in continuous noise measurements from the accelerometers. The developed technique is validated by field data from Adelaide SWN, and results confirm that the developed technique can achieve cost-effective early pipe crack detection and uncontrolled main break prevention.

摘要

对供水网络中的管道破裂进行管理一直是全球水务公司的挑战。为了将对管道中断的反应性管理从主动式管理转变为主动式管理，南澳大利亚州供水公司（SA Water）已投资超过400万美元在阿德莱德中央商务区（CBD）建立了智能水网络（SWN）。该网络包括305个永久性加速度计，可连续监视水网络中的“噪声水平”。当形成新的管道裂缝时，连续测量的基线噪声水平会增加（相对于“正常”网络和其他“环境”昼夜噪声变化）。这项研究开发了一种通过检测加速度计连续噪声测量中的基线变化来自动检测管道裂纹的技术。