Transient Flow Study and Fault Detection in Polymeric Pipelines Inverse-Transient-Based Leak Detection Algorithm

This paper presents a technique for detection and location of faults in polymeric pipelines, by means of transient analysis, of water flows. The method uses transient pressure waves initiated by the sudden closure of a downstream shut-off valve. The presence of faults in pipes partially reflects these pressure waves and allows for the location of any type of fault e.g. leaks. Pressure waves are governed by two coupled non-linear, hyperbolic partial differential equations. The generalized Kelvin-Voigt model was adopted to model the viscoelastic behavior of the polymeric pipes. The fluid pressure head and flow rate are considered as two principal dependent variables. To locate the leak, the mathematical formulation has been solved by the method of characteristics (MOC) of specified time intervals along with Nelder-Mead optimization algorithm for the estimation of the flaw parameters (size and location). The numerical obtained results have shown a good agreement with the experimental data for the detection and the location of leaks.