Experimental Study of the Drinking Water Service Lines with Leaks

Abstract

Leaky service lines are costly due to lost water and the associated energy losses. Treated water that has high energy heads are wasted through leaks in underground service lines. This study addresses the hydraulic parameters of paramount importance at drinking water infrastructures through an experimental work. Major goal of this paper is to understand the spatial and temporal variations of pressure and velocity when there is a leak at service lines (both steady and unstedy states). To accomplish these goals, the authors built an instrumented PVC piping network to represent the real water mains. The total length of the systems is approximately 250 feet and the diameters of pipes range from 1 to 3 inch. LabVIEW based DAQ (Data Acquisition Systems) are adopted to collect data from pressure transducers and a flowmeter. It is found out that leaks are attenuating the transient pressure peaks quite significantly compared to when no leaks are present. The results of this study will help to identify the physical parameters that may be responsible for any service line failures. In addition, this will help provide a significant opportunity for developing best practice maintenance strategies of the service lines.