Vibration detection in water pipelines leakage using wireless three-axis accelerometer sensor

Abstract

Leaking pipes are a primary concern for water utilities around the globe as they compose a major portion of revenue loss. An acoustic method is preferred by the water industry to detect and localise leaks in water pipelines. However, the acoustic leak detection method is only feasible for metal pipes and has several limitations when applied to soft materials, like plastic pipes. Therefore, this study aims to investigate a vibration technique to detect leakage on plastic water pipeline using wireless accelerometer sensor, namely 6DOF accelerometer sensor called MPU6050 across x-, y- and z-axis. A 25-mm diameter of Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene (ABS) pipe with a length of approximately 10 meters was developed as a water pipeline testbed. The MPU6050 measured the vibration on the water pipeline across x-, y- and z-axis, over ZigBee networks. The vibration signals were then compared between the three sensors and analysed by extracting the signal features in time and frequency domains. The sensors were examined based on three different cases, which are no pipe leakage, a 1-mm leak, and a 3-mm leak. The accelerometer sensor demonstrated a significant difference between no leak and leak conditions when the water pressure is in the range of 0.6 to 1.2 kgf/cm2 for time domain. For different leak size cases, MPU6050 can identify leak size cases just not from the x-, but also from z-axis data. Based on new experimental findings, this paper also proposes an MPU6050 procedure in detecting the conditions of the plastic water pipeline including the sizes of the leaks.