Optimal Pipe Network Sensor Layout Design for Hydraulic Transient Event Detection and Localization

Abstract

Excessive hydraulic transients in a water distribution system (WDS) can instantaneously damage equipment and infrastructure, while long-term pressure oscillations can contribute to pipe structural deterioration and eventually pipe bursts. It is therefore important to monitor hydraulic transient events in WDSs and locate the source in a timely manner; however, there is a lack of a theoretical basis for optimal sensor placement with regard to real-time transient event detection. This paper investigates the criteria for optimal sensor deployment of high-speed pressure loggers in a WDS and develops a technique for determining the optimal sensor locations. The proposed criteria focus on maximizing the spatial extent of the network within which transient events can be detected and located. A key concept in this work is the locatability of an event, which is defined based on the combination of hydraulic wave propagation theory in networks and the adoption of graphing theoretic concepts, and is based on the existence of unique wave propagation paths from the event to two or more sensors. Two case studies are considered, where the first is a small network that is used to explain the steps of the method, and the second serves as the basis for an extensive numerical study, where it is observed that the proposed method outperforms other approaches and is able to provide the optimum sensor layout for a given number of sensors.