Impedance Method for Leak Detection in Zigzag Pipelines

Transportation of liquids is a primary aspect of human life. The most important infrastructure used accordingly is the pipeline. It serves as an asset for transporting different liquids and strategic goods. The latter are for example: chemical substances, oil, gas and water. Thus, it is necessary to monitor such infrastructures by means of specific tools. Leakage detection methods are used to reveal liquid leaks in pipelines for many applications, namely, waterworks, oil pipelines, industry heat exchangers, etc. The configuration of pipelines is a key issue because it impacts on the effectiveness of the method to be used and, consequently, on the results to be counterchecked. This research illustrated an improvement of the impedance method for zigzag pipeline by carrying out an experimental frequency analysis that has been compared with other methods based on frequency response. Hence, the impedance method is generally used for simple (straight) pipeline configurations because complicated pipelines with many curves introduce difficulties and major uncertainties in the calculation of characteristic impedance and in the statement of boundary conditions. The paper illustrates the case of a water pipeline where the leakage is acquired thanks to pressure transducers.