Experimental validation of hybrid EMD-correlation acoustic digital leaks detector in water distribution network system

Abstract

Water is a vital resource for life as well as for the majority of energy industries. Finding a way to manage this water sustainably is essential at a time when the world’s water resources are already under increasing stress due to population growth and global warming. As a direct implication, saving water is coming very crucial. This work deals with the application of the empirical mode decomposition method to the detection and the localization of the leaks using acoustic signals issued from STM32F4 acquisition card. Firstly, the empirical mode decomposition method has been applied in the denoising of acquired signals leading to two estimated components on which we apply secondly the correlation method to detect and localize the leakage in water distribution network. Experimental obtained results using a developed hydraulic plant as well as the acquisition system confirm the efficiency of the proposed method to detect accurately the leaks compared to conventional leaks detection methods.