Experimental Validation of Leak and Water-Ingression Detection in Low-Pressure Gas Pipeline Using Pressure and Flow Measurements

In underground low-pressure gas distribution pipelines, ground water enters the pipeline through cracks. This is known as the water ingress problem, and it occurs predominantly in the monsoon season, when the water table is high. This issue is currently detected based on complaints from the users. In order to arrive at an efficient and reliable processing technique, experimental results of pressure and flow on an existing low-pressure gas pipeline are reported in this paper. Several experiments for leak location, severity of the leak, water ingression with various volumes of water followed by removal of water are conducted. Healthy network loading data collected over a 24 h period is used to verify the robustness of the derived parameters for water ingression detection. The present technique can detect leaks easily with a leak valve opening of 30
^o
. Robust detection of water ingression with more than 10% of pipe volume is possible.