Journal of Pipeline Systems Engineering and Practice 

About: Journal of Pipeline Systems Engineering and Practice is an academic journal published by American Society of Civil Engineers. The journal publishes majorly in the area(s): Pipeline transport & Engineering. It has an ISSN identifier of 1949-1190. Over the lifetime, 658 publications have been published receiving 5649 citations. The journal is also known as: Journal of Pipeline Systems Engineering and Practice.

Acoustic Detection of Leaks in Water Pipelines Using Measurements inside Pipe

Abstract: Acoustic leak-detection techniques are proven to be effective and have been widely used in water-distribution systems for several decades. Most of the existing acoustic leak-detection techniques rely on external measurements of sound emitted from the turbulent jet of water escaping the pipe. Direct acoustic measurements through hydrophones, which travel inside the pipe with the flow, have been recently addressed as an efficient complementary leak-detection technique. This paper presents an experimental investigation that addresses the feasibility and potential of in-pipe acoustic measurements for leak detection. An experimental test rig was constructed to simulate a water transmission pipeline and permits different leak sizes, flow rates, and pressures. The acquired acoustic signals were analyzed; the feasibility and limitations of invoking in-pipe measurements for leak detection were addressed. DOI: 10.1061/(ASCE)PS.1949-1204.0000089. © 2012 American Society of Civil Engineers. CE Database subject headings: Leakage; Acoustic techniques; Water pipelines; Measurement. Author keywords: Leak detection; Acoustics; Water pipelines; Hydrophones.

Kalman Filtering of Hydraulic Measurements for Burst Detection in Water Distribution Systems

Abstract: Automatic burst and leak detection in water distribution systems plays an important role in water saving and management. This research develops a novel burst detection method of using adaptive Kalman filtering on hydraulic measurements of flow and pressure at district meter area DMA level. Adaptive Kalman filtering is used to model normal water usage or alternatively water pressure ,s o the residual of the filter e.g., the difference between the predicted flow and the measured flow represents the amount of abnormal water usage relating to the bursts or newly occurred leaks in the downstream network. The results from a series of engineered tests which simulated flushing show that the size of the bursts and leaks strongly correlates with the residual of the filter. Finally, the method was applied to data from several real DMAs in the north of England, and the results show that the detected bursts correspond well to known historical operational information such as customer complaints' records and work management repair data. The results suggest that flow measurement data are more sensitive to a burst or leak than the pressure measurement data.

Hierarchical Fuzzy Expert System for Risk of Failure of Water Mains

Abstract: In Canada and the United States, there have been 700 water main breaks per day costing more than CAD 6 billion since 2000. Risk of failure is defined as the combination of probability and impact severity of a particular circumstance that negatively impacts the ability of infrastructure assets to meet municipal objectives. The presented research in this paper assists in designing a framework to evaluate the risk of water main failure using hierarchical fuzzy expert system (HFES). This system considers 16 risk-of-failure factors within four main categories representing both probability and negative consequences of failure. Results show that pipe age confers a strong impact on risk of failure followed by pipe material and breakage rate. They also show that damage to surroundings has the most negative consequence of a failure event. A set of municipal water network data are collected and used to examine the developed HFES. According to the proposed scale of risk of failure, about 8.4% (13 km) of the network’s...

Gene-Expression Programming for Sediment Transport in Sewer Pipe Systems

Abstract: Old sewerage systems were designed based on empirical rules to minimize sediment problems and a list of codes for self-cleansing sewers. These codes were applicable to noncohesive sediments (typically storm sewers). This study presents gene-expression programming (GEP), which is an extension of genetic programming (GP), as an alternative approach for modeling the functional relationships of sediment transport in sewer pipe systems. A functional relation has been developed using GEP. The proposed relationship can be applied to different boundaries with partial flow. The proposed GEP approach gives satisfactory results (r2=0.97 and MSE=0.0054) compared to the existing predictor.

Gene Expression Models for the Prediction of Longitudinal Dispersion Coefficients in Transitional and Turbulent Pipe Flow

Abstract: Longitudinal dispersion in pipelines leads to changes in the characteristics of contaminants. It is critical to quantify these changes because the contaminants travel through water networks or through chemical reactors. The essential characteristics of longitudinal dispersion in pipes can be described by the longitudinal dispersion coefficient. This paper presents the application of evolutionary gene expression programming (GEP) to develop new empirical formulas for the prediction of longitudinal dispersion coefficients in pipe flow using 220 experimental case studies of the dispersion coefficient with a R range of 2,000–500,000 spanning transitional and turbulent pipe flow. Gene expression programming is used to develop empirical relations between the longitudinal dispersion coefficient and various control variables, including the Reynolds number, the average velocity, the pipe friction coefficient, and the pipe diameter. Four GEP models are developed, and the weight and importance of each contro...