Characterization of In-Pipe Acoustic Wave for Water Leak Detection

作者：Atia E. Khalifa, Rached Ben Mansour, Kamal Youcef‐Toumi, Changrak Choi · 发表于：Volume 8: Mechanics of Solids, Structures and Fluids; Vibration, Acoustics and Wave Propagation · 年份：2011 · DOI：10.1115/imece2011-62333 · 被引用次数：7 · 研究领域：Water Systems and Optimization、Geotechnical Engineering and Underground Structures、Geophysical Methods and Applications

This paper presents experimental observations on the characteristics of the acoustic signal propagation and attenuation inside water-filled pipes. An acoustic source (exciter) is mounted on the internal pipe wall, at a fixed location, and produces a tonal sound to simulate a leak noise with controlled frequency and amplitude, under different flow conditions. A hydrophone is aligned with the pipe centerline and can be re-positioned to capture the acoustic signal at different locations. Results showed that the wave attenuation depends on the source frequency and the line pressure. High frequency signals get attenuated more with increasing distance from the source. The optimum location to place the hydrophone for capturing the acoustic signal is not at the vicinity of source location. The optimum location also depends on the frequency and line pressure. It was also observed that the attenuation of the acoustic waves is higher in more flexible pipes like PVC ones.