No abstract

No abstract

On-line leak detection is a main concern for the safe operation of pipelines. Acoustic and mass balance are the most important and extensively applied technologies in field problems. The objective of this work is to compare these leak detection methods with respect to a given reference situation, i.e., the same pipeline and monitoring signals acquired at the inlet and outlet ends. Experimental tests were conducted in a 749 m long laboratory pipeline transporting water as the working fluid. The instrumentation included pressure transducers and electromagnetic flowmeters. Leaks were simulated by opening solenoid valves placed at known positions and previously calibrated to produce known average leak flow rates. Results have clearly shown the limitations and advantages of each method. It is also quite clear that acoustics and mass balance technologies are, in fact, complementary. In general, an acoustic leak detection system sends out an alarm more rapidly and locates the leak more precisely, provided that the rupture of the pipeline occurs abruptly enough. On the other hand, a mass balance leak detection method is capable of quantifying the leak flow rate very accurately and of detecting progressive leaks.

In the computation of turbulent flows via turbulence modeling, the treatment of the convective terms is a key issue. In the present work, we present a numerical technique for simulating two-dimensional incompressible turbulent flows. In particular, the performance of the high Reynoldsκ-ɛmodel and a new high-order upwind scheme (adaptative QUICKEST by Kaibara et al. (2005)) is assessed for 2D confined and free-surface incompressible turbulent flows. The model equations are solved with the fractional-step projection method in primitive variables. Solutions are obtained by using an adaptation of the front tracking GENSMAC (Tomé and McKee (1994)) methodology for calculating fluid flows at high Reynolds numbers. The calculations are performed by using the 2D version of theFreeflowsimulation system (Castello et al. (2000)). A specific way of implementing wall functions is also tested and assessed. The numerical procedure is tested by solving three fluid flow problems, namely, turbulent flow over a backward-facing step, turbulent boundary layer over a flat plate under zero-pressure gradients, and a turbulent free jet impinging onto a flat surface. The numerical method is then applied to solve the flow of a horizontal jet penetrating a quiescent fluid from an entry port beneath the free surface.