This article presents a procedure, which is formulated in three stages, to simplify the problem of localizing a single leak in a pipeline with multiple branches. The first two stages involve the fulfillment of generic conditions deduced from head loss and flow rate balances for detecting and locating the specific section where the leak is present. The fulfillment of these conditions allows finding the analytical expression for the leak localization, which is the goal of the third stage. The key point of the procedure is the search for the section where the leak is found, which is based on a search for similarity between two types of models that depend, respectively, on measured and estimated hydraulic variables. To support the generality of the analytical expression for the leak localization, it is used to derive previously reported particular expressions for localizing leaks in single-branch pipes. The simplicity of the procedure is demonstrated by numerical simulations. Its performance under real conditions is demonstrated with field data of a 60-km long LPG pipeline in which the correct section with abnormal events is determined, despite uncertain data.

本文提出了一个分三个阶段制定的程序，以简化在具有多个分支的管道中定位单个泄漏的问题。前两个阶段涉及满足从压头损失和流量平衡推导出的一般条件，以检测和定位存在泄漏的特定部分。这些条件的满足允许找到泄漏定位的解析表达式，这是第三阶段的目标。该过程的关键是搜索发现泄漏的部分，该搜索基于对两种模型之间相似性的搜索，这两种模型分别取决于测量和估计的液压变量。为了支持泄漏局部化的分析表达式的一般性，它用于导出先前报告的特定表达式，用于定位单分支管道中的泄漏。通过数值模拟证明了该过程的简单性。尽管有不确定的数据，但通过一条60公里长的LPG管道的现场数据证明了其在真实条件下的性能，其中确定了发生异常事件的正确区段。