A Transient-Based Analysis of a Leak in a Junction of a Series Pipe System: Mathematical Development and Numerical Modeling
Publication: Journal of Pipeline Systems Engineering and Practice
Volume 14, Issue 2
Abstract
In this paper, a numerical model is proposed to simulate the effect of a leak occurring at a pipe junction. The developed model, based on the method of characteristics, considers both hydraulic singularities, the leak and the junction, as superposed boundary conditions located in the same section. Obtained results representing the temporal evolution of pressure signals have allowed for locating the leak through the separation of its effect from that of the junction. For testing purposes, the transient was created by a sudden closure of a downstream valve in a reservoir-two series pipe-valve system. The novel proposed approach has proven its usefulness on locating and sizing the leak through detailed test cases. In sizing the leak, better accuracy is obtained when using the maximum pressure head reached by the incident wave before encountering the leaky junction instead of that of the transmitted wave through the leak. On the other hand, for the localization of the leak, rather than looking for an equivalent characteristic period of the two-pipe system, it was shown that the characteristic period of the pipe connected to the reservoir, once incorporated into the localization formula, leads to precise results with minimal uncertainty. For the piping system, two cases of configuration, viz. expansion and shrinkage (narrowing), were tested. In general, using the proposed approach, the maximum uncertainty values for the sizing and localization of a leak in the junction are 0.1513% and 1.09%, respectively. Additionally, the friction effect on the localization and sizing of the leak at the junction was investigated to conclude that the friction does not significantly affect the precision of the numerically obtained results for the sizing and localization of the leak at the junction.
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Data Availability Statement
Some or all data, models, or code that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
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Published In
Journal of Pipeline Systems Engineering and Practice
Volume 14 • Issue 2 • May 2023
Copyright
© 2023 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Jul 28, 2022
Accepted: Nov 28, 2022
Published online: Feb 13, 2023
Published in print: May 1, 2023
Discussion open until: Jul 13, 2023
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Cited by
- You Fu, Biao Chen, Locating Blockage and Leak in Piping Systems Based on Valve Stroking, Journal of Pipeline Systems Engineering and Practice, 10.1061/JPSEA2.PSENG-1519, 15, 1, (2024).