Feasibility of Locating Leakages in Sewage Pressure Pipes Using the Distributed Temperature Sensing Technology

Abstract

The cost effective maintenance of underwater pressure pipes for sewage disposal in Austria requires the detection and localization of leakages. Extrusion of wastewater in lakes can heavily influence the water and bathing quality of surrounding waters. The Distributed Temperature Sensing (DTS) technology is a widely used technique for oil and gas pipeline leakage detection. While in pipeline leakage detection, fiber optic cables are installed permanently at the outside or within the protective sheathing of the pipe; this paper aims at testing the feasibility of detecting leakages with temporary introduced fiber optic cable inside the pipe. The detection and localization were tested in a laboratory experiment. The intrusion of water from leakages into the pipe, producing a local temperature drop, served as indicator for leakages. Measurements were taken under varying measurement conditions, including the number of leakages as well as the positioning of the fiber optic cable. Experiments showed that leakages could be detected accurately with the proposed methodology, when measuring resolution, temperature gradient and measurement time were properly selected. Despite the successful application of DTS for leakage detection in this lab environment, challenges in real system applications may arise from temperature gradients within the pipe system over longer distances and the placement of the cable into the real pipe system.

Mesocosm experiments identifying hotspots of groundwater upwelling in a water column by fibre optic distributed temperature sensing

“…More extreme examples can be found in natural thermal ponds or pools with hot springs with up to 800 L min −1 discharge rates (Haselwimmer, Prakash, & Holdmann, ). Intense warm water discharge might also be of anthropogenic origin such as sewage leakage from under water pipes (Apperl, Pressl, & Schulz, ).…”

Review of Fiber Optical Sensors and Its Importance in Sewer Corrosion Factor Analysis

“…The outcome of the analysis revealed that the sensor is reliable in measuring the temperature and humidity data in harsh environments. Optical-based temperature sensors were experimented in sewers for various performance monitoring such as hydraulic performance, leakage monitoring [166], etc. Optical temperature sensor for hydraulics performance in sewer was experimented with backscatter light spectrum with less failure rate [167].…”

Localization Techniques for Water Pipeline Leakages: A Review

“…In the study, MPU6050 vibration sensor was used instead of the acoustic sensor because acoustic leak detection is only suitable for a metal pipeline. Their research motivation is to explore the effectiveness of using a vibration sensor since most of the existing research and study is using pressure sensor [13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21]. The water pipeline testbed is using ABS pipe approximately 10 meters length and a 1-inch diameter.…”

“…Distributed Temperature Sensing (DTS) technology is one of the commonly used methods to detect pipeline leakage. Preliminary works in DTS to localize the leakages in sewage pressure pipes were undertaken by [13]. The researchers utilize the DTS technology to measure the temperature along the fibre optic (FO) cable.…”