Optimal Locations of Pressure Meters for Burst Detection

The water industry in the United Kingdom has been widely criticised for poor performance in detecting and fixing bursts. It is therefore reasonable to question if the current industry approach is adequate. Currently water distributions systems are divided up into District Meter Areas (DMA), typically consisting of around 300–5,000 properties. Ideally each DMA has a single inlet with a flow and pressure meter and a pressure meter at a critical (usually the highest connection) point. Night line flow values are then used as a guide to leakage trends. With reduction in pressure instrumentation costs, improvements in battery performance and communication technologies (such as GSM / GPRS) it is becoming feasible to increase the level of instrumentation deployed per DMA. This paper presents the development of a methodology to explore improving the location of the critical meter point(s) within DMAs for detection of leaks/bursts. The approach is based on running multiple hydraulic model simulations of various burst scenarios. The sensitivity of different monitoring points to the imposed conditions are then evaluated, and the results analysed to select the best point or best combination of two points. Results for the application of the methodology to two real DMA models are presented. These clearly demonstrate the technique's potential to improve the location of the ‘critical meter' for detection of bursts as they occur and the capability for further improvements by increasing the number of instruments is also apparent.