Isolated pressure zones based on GIS as a solution for water network problems

Abstract

One of the most important accidents for water transmission lines occur by air entrance due to water hammer into the water pipeline at sub-atmospheric transient pressure. The air can be sucked into the water system causing repeated pipe breaks in sub-atmospheric transient pressure. This work aimed to improve the advanced techniques including remote sensing (RS), and the internet of things (IoT) to control the repeated pipe breaks. According to the geospatial information systems (GIS), the relationship classes between the spatial and non-spatial data were defined for the scaled model. By GIS the location of pipe breaks and sucking air into water pipeline was recognized during fluid instabilities. The location of pipe breaks was defined by the numerical modelling based on GIS. According to numerical analysis, the Courant number was equal to 0.977. In the field test, the surge velocity was 1084 m/s. The pressure wave was detected in 0.005 s by RS facilities equipped with water hammer sensors, advanced modems, and data loggers referring to the IoT technique. The result of this work led to a reduction of the non-revenue water (NRW) and the saving of drinking water.