A Novel Feature Selection Based on VMD and Information Gain for Pipe Blockages

Xuefeng Zhu,Weiquan Deng,Jiande Wu,Zao Feng

doi:10.3390/app112210824

Xuefeng Zhu, Weiquan Deng + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/app112210824

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Abstract

Targeting the challenge of determining the degree of blockage in buried pipelines and the difficulty of effectively extracting blockage features, a blockage detection method integrating variational mode decomposition (VMD) and information gain is proposed. Acoustic impulse response signals were obtained by deconvolving the output signals of the system, which were then subjected to VMD to obtain 12 components in different frequency ranges. Next, information gain (IG) was introduced to characterize the 12 components quantitatively, through which the components containing rich information about the pipe conditions were selected out. Meanwhile, sound pressure level conversion was performed on the selected components to amplify any changes in the sound field. Finally, the root mean square entropy (RMSE) was calculated to constitute the feature eigenvectors, which were input into Random Forests (RF) classifier for defect identification of pipeline. As the experimental results demonstrate, the proposed method is capable of determining the degree of blockage effectively in the running state. Meanwhile, it can also eliminate the interference of functional parts such as lateral connections during the identification process, thereby improving the identification accuracy. The present study has shown both theoretical significance and application value in the field of defect detection and recognition.

Highlights

Sewage are the lifelines of urban construction and social development
variational mode decomposition (VMD), which was proposed by Dragomiretskiy et al in 2014 [31], is an adaptive decomposition method for multicomponent signals
During propagation in the pipe, acoustic signals collide with the pipe wall, blockages, and lateral connections to cause reflection, refraction, and diffraction

Summary

Introduction

Sewage are the lifelines of urban construction and social development. During the sewage operation, factors such as overload, fatigue, and environmental pollution result in cracks, blockages, leakages, and other functional defects inside it, thereby lowering its service life [1]. The severe blockage will compromise the carrying capacity of the pipe and the reliability of the system; will increase the possibility of environmental pollution and the redundancy of the system; and will cause over-pressure of partial pipes in the system to increase the possibility of leakage, thereby resulting in a serious waste of water resources and environmental pollution. Given that the pipelines are buried deep underground, the evaluation of their operational conditions is complicated and challenging [4]. Non-destructive testing of buried pipeline conditions is profoundly meaningful for ensuring the high efficiency and reliability of their normal operation, which is the focus and challenge of urban infrastructure maintenance [5,6]

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