Method of disseminating monitoring information relating to contamination and corrosion within an infrastructure

• US 10,262,518 B2
• Filed: 02/13/2018
• Issued: 04/16/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 10/27/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Mueller International LLC (Mueller Water Products Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: Mueller International LLC (Mueller Water Products Incorporated)
• Inventors: Hyland, Gregory E., Keefe, Robert Paul, Zakas, Marietta Edmonds, Barker, Clayton Robert
• Primary Examiner(s): Wang, Quan-Zhen
• Assistant Examiner(s): Burgdorf, Stephen R
• Application Number:
  US15/895,062
• Publication Number:
  US 20180174424A1
• Time in Patent Office: 427 Days
• Field of Search: 340517
• CPC Class Codes: E03B 7/003 Arrangement for testing of watertightness of water supply conduits
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 21/94 Investigating contamination, e.g. dust G01N21/85 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 33/0075 for multiple spatially distributed sensors, e.g. for environmental monitoring transmission systems for measured values G08C
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 19/4185 characterised by the network communication
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 21/18 Status alarms G08B21/02 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 25/009 Signalling of the alarm condition to a substation whose identity is signalled to a central station, e.g. relaying alarm signals in order to extend communication range
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 25/08 using communication transmission lines G08B13/19658, G08B21/0286, G08B25/016 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 11/04 with alarm systems, e.g. fire, police or burglar alarm systems

Abstract

A method of disseminating information includes detecting, by a first monitoring device, a condition of an aspect of an infrastructure; transmitting data relating to the condition and a first time stamp; detecting, by a second monitoring device, the condition; transmitting data relating to the condition and a second time stamp; determining whether a difference in data indicates a problem of contamination; subsequent to an indication of the problem of contamination, determining an amount of the contamination, an approximate location of the contamination, a direction of contamination movement, and a speed of the contamination movement, based on the first time stamp and the second time stamp; determining whether a difference in data indicates corrosion within the infrastructure; and subsequent to the indication of corrosion, determining whether the data relating to the condition indicates an amount of corrosion determined to be the problem, and a level of severity of the corrosion.

Claims

1. A method of disseminating information, the method comprising:

detecting, by a first monitoring device, a first condition of a first aspect of an infrastructure and transmitting a data signal to an operations center, the data signal including data relating to the first condition and a first time stamp;

detecting, by a second monitoring device, the first condition of the first aspect and a second condition of a second aspect of the infrastructure, and transmitting a data signal to the operations center, the data signal including data relating to the second condition and data relating to the first condition, and the data signal comprising a second time stamp;

determining, by the operations center, whether the data included in the data signal received from either of the monitoring devices indicates a problem of contamination within the infrastructure;

subsequent to an indication of the problem of contamination, determining, by the operations center, an amount of the contamination, an approximate location of the contamination, a direction of contamination movement, and a speed of the contamination movement, wherein the direction and the speed of the contamination movement are based on the first time stamp from the first monitoring device and the second time stamp from the second monitoring device;

determining, by the operations center, whether the data included within the data signal received from either of the monitoring devices indicates a problem of corrosion within the infrastructure; and

subsequent to an indication of the problem of corrosion, determining by the operations center an amount of corrosion determined to be the problem within the infrastructure and a level of severity of the corrosion;

wherein the first aspect and the second aspect define different aspects of the infrastructure.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein each monitoring device comprises:

at least one sensor sensing at least one of the first and second conditions within the infrastructure,

a data storage device storing data sensed by the at least one sensor,

a first communications device adapted to transmit and receive data, and

a first processor communicatively coupled to the at least one sensor, the data storage device, and the first communications device.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the second monitoring device monitors the first condition.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising determining, by the operations center, whether a change in data between data as detected by the first monitoring device relating to the first condition from data as detected by the second monitoring device relating to the first condition indicates a second problem within the infrastructure.

5. A method of disseminating information, comprising:

detecting, by a first monitoring device, a condition of an aspect of an infrastructure;

transmitting, by the first monitoring device, a data signal including data relating to the condition and a first time stamp;

detecting, by a second monitoring device, the condition of the aspect of the infrastructure;

transmitting, by the second monitoring device, a data signal including data relating to the condition and a second time stamp;

determining whether the data from the first monitoring device differs from the data from the second monitoring device;

determining whether a difference in data indicates a problem of contamination within the infrastructure;

subsequent to an indication of the problem of contamination, determining an amount of the contamination, an approximate location of the contamination, a direction of contamination movement, and a speed of the contamination movement, wherein the direction and the speed of the contamination movement are based on the first time stamp from the first monitoring device and the second time stamp from the second monitoring device;

determining whether a difference in data indicates a problem of corrosion within the infrastructure; and

subsequent to an indication of the problem of corrosion, determining whether the data relating to the condition as detected by the first monitoring device and the second monitoring device indicates an amount of corrosion determined to be the problem within the infrastructure, and a level of severity of the corrosion.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the determination of a level of severity of the corrosion is performed by an operations center.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising determining whether the corrosion is severe enough to warrant fixing based on the level of the severity of the corrosion.