Localization of Leaks in Water Distribution Networks using Flow Readings

Abstract

This paper presents a novel approach to localize single and sequential leaks based on the lumped model of a water distribution network (WDN). The principal features of such a model are: a new friction term expressed as a power-law and a suitable representation expressed only in terms of the flow rate. From the response of this model and flow rate measurements at junctions of the pipelines composing the WDN, a set of residuals1 is proposed for each pipeline. The residuals closest to zero will indicate the leak positions in the faulty pipelines. We present some simulation tests based on data from PipelineStudio® from Energy Solutions to illustrate the suitability of our method.