Improved Negative Pressure Wave Method for Municipal Water Pipeline Leak Location Using Real-Time Flow and Pressure Data

People have higher expectations for the reliability and safety of the operation of municipal water supply pipeline networks as urbanization is continuously promoted. The classic negative pressure wave localization method cannot match the demands of municipal water pipelines for leak detection with high accuracy and low false alarm rate due to its weak anti-interference ability and low leak location accuracy. Therefore, this paper proposes a negative pressure wave localization algorithm based on real-time flow and pressure data to improve the accuracy of leak location while accommodating the complex operating conditions of municipal water supply pipelines. In municipal water pipes, real-time flow data helps differentiate between leak occurrences and operational condition adjustment events. Leak location calculations that take flow information into account can result in fewer false alarms. The negative pressure wave positioning algorithm’s positioning accuracy is considerably increased by the wave velocity correction coefficient, which is calculated from real-time pressure data to decrease calculation error of the negative pressure wave velocity. The experimental findings demonstrate that the influence of the general working condition adjustment events on the leak location computation in the municipal water supply network is successfully managed, and the leak location accuracy is increased.