Publication

Real-time leak diagnosis in water distribution systems based on a bank of observers and a genetic algorithm

Journal Article (2022)

Journal

Sensors

Pages

3289

Volume

14

Number

20

Doc link

https://doi.org/10.3390/w14203289

File

Download the digital copy of the doc pdf document

Authors

Abstract

The main contribution of this paper is to present a novel solution for the leak diagnosis problem in branched pipeline systems considering the availability of pressure head and flow rate sensors on the upstream (unobstructed) side and the downstream (constricted) side. This approach is based on a bank of Kalman filters as state observers designed on the basis of the classical water hammer equations and a related genetic algorithm (GA) which includes a fitness function based on an integral error that helps obtaining a good estimation despite the presence of noise. For solving the leak diagnosis problem, three stages are considered: (a) the leak detection is performed through a mass balance; (b) the region where the leak is occurring is identified by implementing a reduced bank of Kalman filters which localize the leak by sweeping all regions of the branching pipeline through a GA that reduces the computational effort; (c) the leak position is computed through an algebraic equation derived from the water hammer equations in steady-state. To assess this methodology, experimental results are presented by using a test bed built at the Tuxtla Gutiérrez Institute of Technology, Tecnológico Nacional de México (TecNM). The obtained results are then compared with those obtained using a classic extended Kalman filter which is widely used in solving leak diagnosis problems and it is highlighted that the GA approach outperforms the EKF in two cases whereas the EKF is better in one case.

Categories

control theory.

Scientific reference

A. Navarro, J.A. Delgado, I. Santos-Ruiz and V. Puig. Real-time leak diagnosis in water distribution systems based on a bank of observers and a genetic algorithm. Sensors, 14(20): 3289, 2022.