Reclamation Information Sharing Environment (RISE)

Water pipeline leaks can be extremely costly in terms of non-revenue water losses, resource allocations, contracted leak detection and locating services, repair costs, water transmission service shutdowns, and even occasional legal outfall from property damage. A variety of buried pipeline monitoring and leak detection/locating techniques have been developed, but acoustic emission (AE)-based techniques were identified by the research team as the most promising for effective long-term and proactive monitoring for leak detection and locating across large pipeline systems. The primary objective of this research project was to gain knowledge and expertise for successfully developing and deploying AE sensing/monitoring systems along existing and future pipelines, so that Reclamation can self-perform early leak detection monitoring and accurate leak location services in near-real-time—at a fraction of the cost compared to single one-time or subscription-based private-sector monitoring services. Research activities included market research, literature and technology review, several laboratory and field-scale experiments, development and testing of prototype acoustic dataloggers and sensors, development and testing of custom software and scripts for performing AE detection and source localization, and pursuing acquisitions of commercial dataloggers and a distributed acoustic sensing (DAS) system for field deployments along the Mni Wiconi Rural Water Supply System.