Yearly Water Loss Diagnosed With Pipeline Inspection
Introduction
Pipers® are equipped with an acoustic leak detection sensor. While moving through a pipeline, Pipers® continuously record the relatively quiet flow noise, creating a baseline for the measured sound intensity. When a pipeline is leaking, the jet of liquid passing through the crack or hole generates a characteristic hissing or rushing sound that significantly deviates from the baseline noise in a localized region around the leak. Conversely, if there is no change (or only long-term gradual change) in the average sound intensity along the length of the pipeline, no leaks were detected.
Project description
Thailand’s Provincial Waterworks Authority (PWA) had a serious problem: 30-40% of raw water was being lost throughout its fiberglass pipeline system every year. The PWA knew its lines had to be leaking, but previous inspection results failed to explain such significant losses.
DTS Construction, a family-owned business in Bangkok, deployed Pipers® through an air valve to inspect a 6.6-kilometer fiberglass pipeline that crossed two canals and a main road.
INGU analyzed the data and reported the coordinates of a single leak flowing into one of the canals. There were no visible signs of a leak at the surface, so teams had to wade through the water and surrounding vegetation to confirm the leak in person.
“In the end, INGU Pipers® and data science located the leak within two meters,” says Tana Tananilgul, General Manager of DTS Construction. “We’ll use Pipers® again. The client was happy with the results. Physically locating the leak underwater was a challenge. Thanks to INGU Pipers®, we only had to search a +/-10 meter range versus a 6-kilometer pipeline, a nearly impossible task otherwise.”
Pipeline specifications
Pipeline Length | 6.6 km |
Pipeline Diameter | 1 meter |
Pipeline Material | Fiberglass |
Content | Raw water |
Location | Thailand |
