This paper presents a new methodology for sensor reallocation in large scale-systems considering fault isolation purposes. From an initial set consisting of a limited number of sensors already installed in certain locations of the system, the proposed methodology produces a new sensor placement where some of the sensors are strategically reallocated in different but available places of the system. The procedure is posed as an optimization problem where the performance index is specific of the fault isolation method to be used. The algorithm that solves the problem is an incremental upgrading approach based in the Sequential Forward Floating Search algorithm and it combines a forward phase (where sensors are added sequentially) with a backward phase (where sensors can be individually removed from the original sensor placement). The proposed methodology is illustrated by means of its application to the problem of leak localization in Water Distribution Networks (WDN), where the particular placement of the pressure sensors has a great impact in the ability to isolate the leaky node. Also, since only a limited number of pressure sensors can be installed in some nodes, space interpolation techniques must be used to estimate the pressure in the other network nodes. The performance of the localization process is measured in terms of pipe distance from the estimated leaky node candidate to the real leaky node. The proposed methodology is applied to two District Metered Areas of the WDN of a metropolitan area of Spain, in simulation and using real measurements and leak scenarios.

本文提出了一种考虑故障隔离目的的大规模系统中传感器重新分配的新方法。从由已安装在系统某些位置的有限数量的传感器组成的初始集合中，所提出的方法产生了新的传感器放置，其中一些传感器被战略性地重新分配在系统的不同但可用的位置。该过程被视为一个优化问题，其中性能指标特定于要使用的故障隔离方法。解决该问题的算法是一种基于顺序前向浮动搜索算法的增量升级方法，它将前向阶段（传感器按顺序添加）与后向阶段（传感器可以从原始传感器位置单独移除）相结合。所提出的方法通过其在配水网络 (WDN) 中泄漏定位问题的应用来说明，其中压力传感器的特定位置对隔离泄漏节点的能力有很大影响。此外，由于在某些节点中只能安装有限数量的压力传感器，因此必须使用空间插值技术来估计其他网络节点中的压力。定位过程的性能是根据从估计的泄漏节点候选到实际泄漏节点的管道距离来衡量的。在模拟和使用真实测量和泄漏场景中，所提出的方法被应用于西班牙大都市区的 WDN 的两个区域计量区域。