The concept of an improved acoustic wireless sensor node for leak detection and location in a water distribution network

Abstract

The paper presents the concept of a node of an acoustic-based system for leak detection and location. The system monitors hydraulic parameters and condition of a water distribution network (WDN) using a wireless sensor network (WSN). The WSN's nodes communicate with each other using acoustic waves propagating through water in the pipeline. Alternatively, a WSN uses a combination of acoustic-based and radiowavebased communication. The preliminary research positively verified communication capabilities of the WSN in laboratory conditions. The paper discusses the improvements of an idea presented in [12, 14] and its possible application to leak detection and location. The paper continues the long-term research on diagnostics of water distribution networks conducted by the Institute of Fundamentals of Machinery Design.