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Cross-correlation analysis of multiple fibre optic hydrophones for water pipeline leakage detection

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Abstract

Leakage detection plays a significant role in water pipeline since leakage problems severely affect urban water supply safety. The fibre optic hydrophone derives from fibre optic hydroacoustic sensing technology and exhibits superior performance to traditional electric hydrophones. To investigate leakage detection performance of the proposed fibre optic hydrophone system, tests were conducted on overhead and buried pipelines, respectively. Two types of spherical valves were adopted for simulating leakage with different sizes. Effects of surrounding medium on leakage acoustic wave and positioning accuracy were studied. The signal was acquired by hydrophone analyser and analysed by a self-developed program. A revised cross-correlation analysis of multi-signals was proposed and compared with that of two signals; it presented a better performance in time delay estimation. With leakage, overhead pipelines showed larger amplitudes than that of buried pipelines and signal amplitude increased with the opening degree of valves. The results reveal that the surrounding medium of the pipeline affected the leakage wave velocity and could attenuate the wave. The cross-correlation analysis of multiple hydrophones could increase the accuracy of leakage positioning. The proposed leakage detection system was feasible to detect leakage of both overhead and buried pipelines.

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Abbreviations

AE :

Acoustic emission

ANN :

Artificial neural network

FOH :

Fibre optic hydrophone

GPR :

Ground penetrating radar

NPW :

Negative pressure wave

SVM :

Support vector machine

TMs :

Transmission mains

TTBTS :

Transient test-based techniques

WDNs:

Water distribution networks

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank National and Local Joint Engineering Laboratory for Major Infrastructure Inspection and Repair Technology for the assistance with test site layout and conducting the test.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Civil Engineering, Sun Yat-sen University, Zhuhai, 519082, People’s Republic of China

    C. Guo & K. Shi

  2. Department of Civil Engineering, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, NG7 2RD, UK

    X. Chu

Authors
  1. C. Guo
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  2. K. Shi
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  3. X. Chu
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Correspondence to X. Chu.

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This article does not contain any studies with human participants or animals performed by any of the authors.

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Editorial responsibility: Samareh Mirkia.

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Guo, C., Shi, K. & Chu, X. Cross-correlation analysis of multiple fibre optic hydrophones for water pipeline leakage detection. Int. J. Environ. Sci. Technol. 19, 197–208 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13762-021-03163-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13762-021-03163-y

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