Abstract
Asset monitoring, specifically infrastructure monitoring such as water distribution pipelines, is becoming increasingly critical for utility owners who face new challenges due to an aging network. In the UK alone, during the period of 2009–2010, approximately 3281 mega litres (106) of water were wasted due to failure or leaks in water pipelines. Various techniques can be used for the monitoring of water distribution networks. This paper presents the design, development and testing of a smart wireless sensor network for leak detection in water pipelines, based on the measurement of relative indirect pressure changes in plastic pipes. Power consumption of the sensor nodes is minimised to 2.2 mW based on one measurement every 6 h in order to prolong the lifetime of the network and increase the sensor nodes’ compatibility with current levels of power available by energy harvesting methods and long life batteries. A novel pressure sensing method is investigated for its performance and capabilities by both laboratory and field trials. The sensors were capable of measuring pressure changes due to leaks. These pressure profiles can also be used to locate the leaks.
Highlights
Infrastructure monitoring has been an attractive subject for researchers in recent years
A novel, relative pressure sensing method based on force sensitive resistors (FSR) is used for pressure measurements in the proposed Underground Wireless Sensor Networks (UWSN) for pipeline monitoring [25]
The proposed leak detection method is based on the relative pressure change profile in the pipe; it is unnecessary to calibrate the sensors
Summary
Infrastructure monitoring has been an attractive subject for researchers in recent years. A vast amount of literature and research exists regarding the use of acoustic or vibration measurements for pipeline monitoring [5,10,11,12,13,14,15,16] The majority of these methods are based on the detection of the acoustic emissions from the pipe. Measuring the acoustic signal requires a high sampling rate which makes the nodes consume more power and last a shorter amount of time on the limited power supply available These methods produce large data sets and require complex processing algorithms which increase the power consumption of the sensor nodes. Fibre optic cables can be deployed over long distances (few kilometres) to detect leaks or measure temperatures and strains in the pipes [11,13] This makes it a suitable technique for pipeline monitoring. Power consumption requirements of a suitable UWSN are identified and based on these findings an ultra-low power wireless sensor node is designed and developed
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