Remote Thermal Water Leakage Sensor With a Laser Communication System

Abstract

The change in the temperature of an underground water pipeline and its surrounding environment caused by a leakage has been detected by a variety of devices. Among the most popular technologies are infrared cameras, distributed temperature sensing using fiber optic cables, and analog active temperature sensors. In this paper, a novel low-cost leakage detection system composed of two analog active temperature sensors is presented. The proposed system detects water leakages by comparing the readings of two analog active temperature sensors, one at the surface at a depth of 2 cm of a sand layer covering a buried water pipeline and the other is adjacent to the first sensor at the same depth in a thermally insulated portion by a polystyrene barrier. The results of the heat flow simulation developed with FEMM (Finite Element Method Magnetics) 4.2, which is free, open source, cross-platform capable of solving heat flow problems, showed that the addition of the insulation is expected to increase the difference between the readings of the sensors from 0.011 to 0.063 K ( o C) when there is a leakage, and thus the addition of the insulation can be effective in making the effect of leaked water on the surface temperature more detectable. Experimental results indicated the capability of the proposed system in detecting water leakage which caused a temperature difference of 1.47 o C after 30 minutes of running a leaking water system. Furthermore, a laser communication system was built to allow for the transmission of an alarm signal from the sensing node above the underground pipeline to a master node which should have an internet connection to upload information to a cloud storage which can be accessed by different users.INDEX TERMS Laser communication, leakage detection, Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), temperature sensors, underground water pipeline. I. LITERATURE REVIEWLeakages in water distribution networks (WDNs) cause significant losses of treated water. The amount of lost water from WDNs in GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) countries,

State‐of‐the‐art review of leak diagnostic experiments: Toward a smart water network

“…They deduced that both wave speed and attenuation are higher for a buried pipe. Awwad et al (2020) used a remote setup using temperature sensors for detecting leaks. The study observed temperature differences in the soil every 17 min to make predictions.…”

Evaluation of the Factors Impacting the Water Pipe Leak Detection Ability of GPR, Infrared Cameras, and Spectrometers under Controlled Conditions

“…Although the efficiency of an IR camera has been determined using the optimum time to use the camera [37], the distance of the camera from the source [37,38], and the rate of capturing images [37], previous studies ignored the efficiency of IR cameras in wide-ranging pipe materials and soils, as well as environmental characteristics (such as different levels of MC). Apart from the IR camera, the thermal leak detection approach was also successful [39]. The IR camera successfully detected the leaks as a thermal contrast at the pavement surface that occurred in fall and spring seasons, while it failed in detecting leaks occurring in the summer and winter due to high pavement temperature and the snow coverage, respectively.…”

Precise Water Leak Detection Using Machine Learning and Real-Time Sensor Data

“…The authors of [13] also developed a WSN with thermal sensors to detect water leaks in pipes. In this case, the system detects temperature changes of the soil above the leakage, allowing the user to be warned of a possible leak location.…”

“…To improve the efficiency of water distribution and to reduce waste related to leaks, a sensor network can be used to execute those analyses with precision and in an autonomous way. Some research and development can be found in both the academic and industrial worlds, ranging from expansive fixed systems that use ultrasonic clamps to analyze real-time water flow, such as [11], to low-cost solutions found in the academic world, such as [12][13][14][15][16].…”