On Image Fusion of Ground Surface Vibration for Mapping and Locating Underground Pipeline Leakage: An Experimental Investigation

Abstract

This paper is concerned with imaging techniques for mapping and locating underground pipeline leakage. Ground surface vibrations induced by the propagating axisymmetric wave can be measured by an array of acoustic/vibration sensors, with the extraction of magnitude information used to determine the position of leak source. A method of connected graph traversal is incorporated into the vibroacoustic technique to obtain the spatial image with better accuracy compared to the conventional magnitude contour plot. Measurements are made on a dedicated cast iron water pipe by an array of seven triaxial geophones. The spectral characteristics of the propagation of leak noise signals from underground water pipes to the ground surface are reported. Furthermore, it is demonstrated that suspicious leakage areas can be readily identified by extracting and fusing the feature patterns at low frequencies where leak noise dominates. The results agree well with the real leakage position in the underground pipeline.

Analysis of phase data from ground vibration measurements above a leaking plastic water pipe

“…The data was then processed using machine learning techniques to obtain a real time 3D map to infer the location of the buried pipe. More recently, Yan et al [17] investigated an imaging fusion technique based on connected graph transversal that provided a better spatial image of the amplitude information to determine the position of the leak source. Experimental results showed that the proposed model gives better magnitude contour plots when image fusion is applied.…”