Flexible in-pipe leak detection sensor module design and fabrication

Abstract

Recent pipe bursts and explosions have caused not only financial losses but also a threat to public safety. Due to the recent incidents, governments have imposed strict laws with an increase in inspection regulation requirements. Large size networks make manual inspection of an entire complex system almost impossible. The need for autonomous automatic inspection systems is evident. A robust autonomous in-pipe leak detection robot was developed and reported in [1-5]. The developed system is able to accurately detect leaks in both pressurized gas and water pipes. This however was limited to 101.6mm (4in) internal diameter pipes. In practice, fouling of water pipes makes the internal pipe surface irregular. This thesis presents an analysis, design and experimental evaluation of a flexible detection system for pipes with large inner pipe diameter variation (80mm to 120mm). The system performance is evaluated through simulations and experiments. Experimental results show that the flexible sensor can detect leaks in pipes with simulated limescale. In addition, experiments were conducted to evaluate the effects of detector shift from the pipe centerline along with the effective area coverage of the leak by the sensor. The results show robust performance under large variations.