Online monitoring of seismic damage in water distribution systems

Abstract

It is shown that water distribution systems can be damaged by earthquakes, and the seismic damages cannot easily be located, especially immediately after the events. Earthquake experiences show that accurate and quick location of seismic damage is critical to emergency response of water distribution systems. This paper develops a methodology to locate seismic damage -- multiple breaks in a water distribution system by monitoring water pressure online at limited positions in the water distribution system. For the purpose of online monitoring, supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) technology can well be used. A neural network-based inverse analysis method is constructed for locating the seismic damage based on the variation of water pressure. The neural network is trained by using analytically simulated data from the water distribution system, and validated by using a set of data that have never been used in the training. It is found that the methodology provides an effective and practical way in which seismic damage in a water distribution system can be accurately and quickly located.