Monitoring of pressure transients in water supply networks

Ageing water infrastructure is one of the major problems faced by water utilities around the world at present, and urgent solutions are required in order to maintain the integrity of the water supply network. In order to use pipe failure prediction models, accurate information about loads acting on these pipes is important. Water pressure (steady-state and transient) is one of the key loads that needs to be estimated accurately in order to improve the predictability of pipe failures. This paper reports the results of a pressure monitoring program, which was conducted to measure pressure fluctuations during events of pressure transients in three selected network sections in Australia. Pressure measurements were conducted in network sections which were considered as susceptible to pressure transients. Potential sources of pressure transients were identified, and high speed data loggers were installed in selected locations of each network to measure and monitor pressure transients. Pressure transients that were generated during normal operation were measured for a period of one month in each selected section. Further, some of the pressure transients were manually made to simulate the different pressures due to pump start-ups within the network. Pressure fluctuations that could potentially lead to pipe failures were measured at many locations during the monitoring program (several selected failures were reported in this article). Therefore, the effect of pressure transients must not be ignored in pipe failure prediction