Leak Detection Essay

Literature Review
Leakage detection Techniques
With the current massive demand for fresh water for residential and industrial purposes, the water industry has made a huge effort to increase the effectiveness of their operation. Consequently, a numerous research was conducted on the field of leakage detection. The chronological appearance was introduced from [2] as shown in Figure 1.
Since 1850s, leak detection was based on the sound, which is accompanied with leak. The detection via sound was based on installing wooden listening rods in all accessible contact points in the network, for instance main valves and hydrants, these listening rods acts like rudimentary listening transmittals. After detecting the leak, a noise survey will be conducted on the nearby areas of the leak location to detect the

The current methods are divided into two categories internal and external. Additionally, the transient based analysis methods are discussed here. Despite, the large number of leak detection methods none of them has proved to be credible in all leak cases, because they can be imprecise and time consuming or just suitable for a limited section of the pipeline[4]. The aim of the pipeline operators and researchers is to find a simple, robust, and precise method to locate a leak [5].
Leak detection based on external methods.
External Methods of leakage detection don’t interfere with the pipeline structure, albeit they are able to detect the presence of the leak from outside by the usage of proper equipment or by visual observation. Most of these methods usually are not able to define the quantity of leak, however they are able to detect and locate the leakage. Examples of these methods are observation, acoustic method, tracer gas method, video inspection, infra-red thermography and ground penetrating radar (GPR).