Water-loss analysis and detection of hidden leakages

WATER-LOSS ANALYSIS

Network losses are an inevitable consequence of the operation of any pipeline network. The predominant part of losses is due to hidden, useless seeping of water from the network, which are consequences of pipe cracks and scaling defects. (Under pressure many hundreds, even thousands of cubic meters of water will be lost per month, even through the minutest crack).

 

Monitoring and eliminating of network losses, keeping them at an acceptable level are the most important and most difficult tasks of the operators of pipeline networks. Nowadays the ever rising prices of energy and water represent an additional incentive for systematic network monitoring.

 

The most important profile of our company is LOSS MEASUREMENT and ACTIVE LEAKAGE CONTROL (ALC) activity: to perform  water-loss analysis by measurements made by mobile units (trucks) in round-the-clock operation; the localisation of faultless and damaged network segments, the exact identification of loss levels in the damaged parts, as well as the LOCALISATION OF THE HIDDEN LEAKAGES resulting in such losses.

The measurement of loss levels is carried out with water-loss analytical methods, by the continuous registration of the readings of pressure gauges and of inductive flow meters mounted in the analytical mobile units (trucks), and by processing the input data. It is important to note that the measurements are carried out without any discomfort to customers, during continued uninterrupted water supply.

 

 

 

DETECTION OF HIDDEN LEAKAGES

…The silence of the surface ...and the chat of the depth replies…

                                       based on free translation after Attila JÓZSEF, Hungarian poet

The Water loss analytical method allows the isolation of the damaged pipeline segment between two gate valves. For the exact location of the failure we have an array of various methods at our disposal, each based on different principles and working towards particular purposes.

The majority of our instruments operate on an acoustic principle, as water flowing through a rupture under pressure will generate sound vibrations, which shall then spread through the medium itself, along the pipeline walls and through the soil. THE ELECTRO-ACOUSTIC MONITORING based on the detection of these sound vibrations is carried out with the help of contact and soil microphones. Our instruments are provided with frequency filters, amplifiers and data storage units.

Correlation measurement technique is a further acoustic method, based on measuring the spread of vibrations in the pipe wall or in water in time, after which the exact location of the leakages is possible to be pinpointed by computerised processing of the data.