Smart water grid: A smart methodology to detect leaks in water distribution networks

The problem of water leaks in the water distributions networks is faced through a continuous monitoring of the network infrastructures, performed using smart sensors appropriately placed on opportune pipes of the net. The methodology proposed by the authors for detecting leaks and locating them with sufficient accuracy, consists in measuring the radial vibrational status of opportune pipes of the network. The idea arises from the consideration that the variation of the energy transmitted to the pipe walls by the radial component of the vibrations induced by the turbulence of the fluid onto them may be related to the flow leak itself. The structure of the proposed Smart Water Grid (SWG) is described here and a monitoring procedure is formulated starting from the innovative leak detection technique; a loss index is introduced and the first experimental results of the measurement campaign, performed on a specially designed and built test simple network, are here presented.