Water leakage monitoring system

• US 8,072,340 B2
• Filed: 11/06/2008
• Issued: 12/06/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 09/07/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: City of Kitakyushu, Toshiba Infrastructure Systems & Solutions Corporation (Toshiba Corporation)
• Original Assignee: City of Kitakyushu, Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba (Toshiba Corporation)
• Inventors: Yukawa, Atsushi, Yokokawa, Katsuya, Oishi, Naoto
• Primary Examiner(s): Lieu, Julie
• Application Number:
  US12/266,025
• Publication Number:
  US 20090066524A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,125 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 340/605
• CPC Class Codes: G01M 3/2815 using pressure measurements

Abstract

A water leakage monitoring system including a water leakage position estimator which includes a periodic data acquiring unit for fetching predetermined-period flow rate pressure data stored in a monitoring device, and for fetching a signal related to a flow rate change and pressure changes expecting a water leakage reaction time calculating unit for calculating a pressure reaction time lag between two pressure changes, a pressure propagation velocity estimating unit for estimating a pressure propagation velocity using the pressure reaction time lag and a distance between two pressure gauges located in a water distribution block stored in a pipeline network map data, and a flow rate change position estimating unit for receiving a signal related to the flow rate change, and estimating a flow rate change position using pressure propagation velocity and a flow meter and pressure gauge locating positions of the pipeline network map data.

Claims

1. A water leakage monitoring system provided with one or more flow meter and two or more pressure gauges in each water distribution block forming a water distribution pipeline network, and estimating a water leakage position from flow rate data and pressure data measured by these flow meter and pressure gauges,

comprising:

a monitoring device receiving the flow rate data and the pressure data measured by the flow meter and the pressure gauges, and storing time-series flow rate and pressure data at a predetermined period for every water distribution block; and

a water leakage position estimator estimating a water leakage position from the flow rate data and the pressure data stored in the monitoring device,

wherein the water leakage position estimator includes;

periodic data acquiring means for fetching predetermined-period flow rate data and pressure data at every water distribution block from the monitoring device, and fetching and outputting a signal related to a flow rate change expecting a water leakage from the predetermined-period flow rate data and to a pressure change resulting from the flow rate change from the predetermined-period pressure data related to at least two pressure gauges;

pressure gauge reaction time calculating means for calculating a pressure reaction time lag from a signal related to a change between two pressures output from the periodic data acquiring means;

pressure propagation velocity estimating means for estimating a pressure propagation velocity using the pressure reaction time lag obtained by the pressure gauge reaction time calculating means and a distance between pressure gauges obtained at two pressure gauge locating positions of each water distribution block previously stored in a water distribution pipeline network map;

pipe bore calculating means for fetching a bore of a pipe mutually connecting the pressure gauges of the water distribution block or connecting the flow meter and the pressure gauge from previously stored water distribution pipeline network map data when receiving a signal related to a flow rate change from the periodic data acquiring means, and calculating an average value of pipe bores when a connection is made using a pipeline having a pipe bore different from the fetched pipe bore; and

pipeline wall thickness estimating means for estimating and displaying a wall thickness of a pipeline having the flow rate change based on a predetermined pressure propagation velocity calculating equation using the pipe bore obtained by the pipe bore calculating means and the pressure propagation velocity.

2. The water leakage monitoring system according to claim 1, further comprising:

means for making a comparison between the pressure propagation velocity estimated by the pressure propagation estimating means and the pressure propagation velocity obtained from the predetermined propagation velocity calculating equation using a wall thickness and bore of the pipeline having a flow rate change obtained from the water distribution pipeline network map data, and for outputting and displaying the pipeline data having a flow rate change when a large difference exists between the foregoing two pressure propagation velocities.

6. The water leakage monitoring system according to claim 2, wherein when the flow rate change factor acquiring means estimates that a flow rate change factor results from crack and breakage of a pipeline, the flow rate change position estimating means estimates and outputs a flow rate change position based on pressure propagation velocity obtained by the pressure propagation velocity estimating means, and when the flow rate change factor acquiring means estimates that the flow rate change factor results from an equipment other than crack and breakage of a pipeline, the configuration described in claim 3 estimates and displays a wall thickness of the pipeline having a flow rate change.

3. A water leakage monitoring system provided with one or more flow meter and two or more pressure gauges in each of water distribution blocks forming a water distribution pipeline network, and estimating a water leakage position from flow rate data and pressure data measured by the flow meter and pressure gauges,

comprising:

a monitoring device receiving flow rate data and pressure data measured by the flow meter and the pressure gauges located in each water distribution block forming the water distribution pipeline network, and storing periodically and successively the received flow rate data and pressure data in a time-series manner at each water distribution block; and

a water leakage position estimation device estimating a water leakage position from the flow rate data and the pressure data stored in the monitoring device,

wherein the water leakage position estimation device includes;

periodic data acquiring means for fetching periodically from the monitoring device the flow rate data and the pressure data at every water distribution block to output a signal relating to a flow rate change expecting a water leakage from the flow rate data and relating to the pressure changes caused by the flow rate change and denoted by at least two items of the pressure data obtained from the two pressure gauges;

pressure gauge reaction time calculating means for calculating from the signal a time difference between the two pressure changes obtained from at least two pressure gauges output from the periodic data acquiring means;

pressure propagation velocity estimating means for estimating a pressure propagation velocity using the time difference between the pressure gauge reaction times obtained by the pressure gauge reaction time calculating means and a distance between two pressure gauge locating positions in each water distribution block previously stored in a water distribution pipeline network map data; and

flow rate change position estimating means for estimating and displaying a flow rate change position denoting a water leakage position using the pressure propagation velocity estimated by the pressure propagation velocity estimating means and flow meter and pressure gauge locating positions stored in the water distribution pipeline network map data when receiving the signal relating to the flow rate change from the periodic data acquiring means.

4. The water leakage monitoring system according to claim 3, further comprising:

storage means for storing data denoting at least a relation between flow rate change values and pipe bore diameters of pipelines in the pipeline network; and

pipe bore diameter determining means by referring to the storage means based on a flow rate change value, when the signal relating to the flow rate change value obtained by the periodic data acquiring means is received, to determine a pipe bore diameter of a pipeline corresponding to the flow rate change value, thereby sending data denoting the determined pipe bore diameter to the flow rate change position estimating means so as to output and display the data together with flow rate change position data.

5. The water leakage monitoring system according to claim 4, further comprising:

storage means for storing data denoting at least a relation between the flow rate change values and various flow rate change factors including crack and breakage of a pipeline located in each of the water distribution block; and

flow rate change factor acquiring means by referring to the storage means based on the flow rate change values, when the signal relating to the flow rate change is received from the periodic data acquiring means, for estimating and displaying the flow rate change factor data denoting that the flow rate change is caused by at least one of a crack or a breakage of the pipeline, use of a fire hydrant and an operation of a water receiving tank.