Detection the Places of the Heat Energy Leak on the Underground Thermal Pipelines Using the Computer System

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to improve the thermographic method for detection the places of heat energy losses on the urban underground thermal pipelines using the computer system. This goal was achieved by building a heat map of the surveyed heating main with data layering directly on a computer map of the area, which can be accessed from a mobile device by authorization via the Internet (profile on the social network Google, Facebook, Twitter, etc.). An analytical model was proposed for converting the temperature values measured over the underground heating main by a non-contact digital pyrometer to an image of the RGB color model using the parameters of the HSV color model. The implementation of the integrated Google technologies complex (Google Firebase, Firebase Authentication, and Google Maps) in the technological process of urban housing and public services was realized. The information-measuring computer system (IMCS) was developed. The proposed improvements in the thermographic method provided independently from each other work of different service teams due to the exchange of data between structural units through the cloud data storage. The results of the practical research allowed detecting the place of the underground breakthrough of the heat pipe quickly, to position the repair equipment over the accident section precisely using the GPS module on the mobile device. Thus, the size of the dug road section was minimized, material resources were saved. The experimental studies carried out confirmed the correctness of the theoretical assumptions.

Impact of Water Temperature Changes on Water Loss Monitoring in Large District Heating Systems

“…It is particularly difficult to locate water leaks in a DHN, which occur directly in the ground or in ducts, and microleaks. Many methods have been developed to locate water leaks [12][13][14][15][16], but they only concern large leaks. For this reason, a method has been adopted to indirectly determine (calculate) the volume of network water losses.…”

“…Their location is manifested by water leaks or local moisture in the insulation of the pipelines. Water leaks can be located by various means [12][13][14] such as the commonly used noninvasive acoustic, thermovision [15,16]. and impedance techniques [17].…”

Thermal image enhancement by artificial multiscale-exposure image fusion

“…They provide a wealth of information about the temperature of the observed object, which is more resilient to variations in illumination or background clutter compared to traditional cameras. Thermal imaging cameras have been successfully utilized in various computer vision tasks, including pedestrian detection [1], behavior recognition [2], military surveillance [3], autonomous navigation in GPS-denied environments [4], fire detection [5], heat leakage detection [6], gas leak detection [7], and more. However, thermal sensors capable of capturing high-resolution images tend to be expensive.…”

The Ability of a Soil Temperature Gradient-Based Methodology to Detect Leaks from Pipelines in Buried District Heating Channels

“…Leak detection requires suitable experimental implementation to control the heat loss through the soil [16,17]. For this purpose, only temperature sensors are required (for example, the use of a digital pyrometer) [18]. The presented methodology can also serve as a supplement to infrared thermography, one of the most promising leakage detection techniques for district heating networks [19].…”