Frost & Sullivan technical insights
May 2010
Analytical Instrumentation & Environmental Monitoring
Innovative water pipe monitoring system.
Water is one of the most vital elements in any country’s infrastructure. Failures in water systems can result in the waste of billions of gallons of water, thus there is a need to monitor pipes to detect faults.
In order to deal with the aftermath of natural disasters on pipes and to ensure that supply of water is restored as soon as possible, researchers at the University of California have developed a pipe monitoring system that provides information about when damage occurs and also pinpoints the location. This information will give an idea about the extent of the damage and can also aid in mitigating the resulting consequences.
Sensing devices the size of a compact disc (CD) are attached to the pressurised and non-pressurised pipes. The devices are capable of detecting vibration and sound changes that could indicate potential problems. This information collected by the sensors is transmitted wirelessly over long distances and is sent to a central location where it would be stored, processed and analysed. A small scale network of pressurised pipes has been developed to test the effectiveness of this damage indication system; researchers are now working on developing a system that works both underground and over large areas.
The plan is to use existing pipe networks to test and calibrate the sensors by simulating pressure changes similar to those that occur in the event of pipe damage. According to the researcher, existing scada sensors are too sparsely located to identify damage precisely when a natural calamity such as an earthquake could affect a pipe in several locations. Thus the new sensors are designed to complement existing systems.
The main challenge, as is often the case with wireless sensor networks, is powering the sensors, also they need to be cost-effective and robust enough to function in harsh environments. The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has funded this work for three years and invested about $5,7 million. Future work will involve the development of methods to repair the pipe damage at joints.
For more information contact Patrick Cairns, Frost & Sullivan, +27 (0)18 464 2402, patrick.cairns@frost.com, www.frost.com
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