HydroGuard - Identifying mains burst locations
"Dozens of people evacuated and hundreds more left without power after a water pipe burst today" "One of Britain’s busiest roads was transformed into a vast lake yesterday after a water main burst in the early hours of the morning" "Pensioner awakes to lake in back garden after mains burst" "A couple were shocked when a water main burst outside their home – shooting water up 15ft to their bedroom window"
The above headlines strike fear into the hearts of water company chairmen, managers, engineering staff, customers and insurers alike. Unfortunately they are becoming more and more common as the piped network that carries water to our homes is put under more and more stress.
A water or trunk main or transfer main is a principal pipe, normally large diameter, in a system of pipes for conveying water, normally installed underground. Every water company’s nightmare is the sight and sound of a burst water main. The danger to life and property from flooding, the inconvenience caused to businesses travellers and the public, the damage to property, the negative PR for the water company and the cost of emergency repairs are significant and stressful for all concerned. The two biggest issues with mains bursts are that they are difficult to predict and when they occur and they are hard to discover until the water is visible and the damage is done. The ability to predict and pinpoint a mains burst location would have a hugely beneficial effect for the wide range of parties affected by this latent threat.
In order to tackle this problem, Ashridge Engineering Limited, a company with 30 years experience in designing and developing instrumentation for the utilities industries, were selected as a "partner company" by a major water company. The specific goal for Ashridge was to provide a cost effective, battery operated monitoring and alarm system for the detection and pinpointing of burst water mains.
HydroGuard® is a Tri-parameter (Flow, Pressure & Noise) SMS based data logger, alarming unit, and burst water main identification / location unit for water trunk and transfer mains. The HydroGuard unit can be set to measure at 15 minute intervals and ‘learn’ a ‘pipeline activity signature’, (PAS). This PAS comprises flow, pressure and noise profiles at each 15 minute interval throughout the 24 hour period. Multiple High, Low or Combination alarms can be set on each of the 3 channels with activation of various actions. These include initiating a unique higher frequency logging rate, (FastLine), during the period of interest and the initiation of alarms sent directly to mobile phones via SMS. More recently the scope has been widened to include formal integration into the water company's Water Control Centre – the system used to manage water for the whole of a large city including alarm management and response handling.
Within the control centre, the dedicated HydroGuard PC base station receives the incoming SMS messages on a daily basis and presents the compressed data in a graphical format for viewing and archiving. In addition the Ashridge software monitors incoming alarm notifications to help determine the probability and location of a major burst. As the system learns to recognise the signature of an impending burst, so the water company engineers will get closer to being able to predict likely bursts and pinpoint their location. This will allow resources to be despatched to the point of interest in enough time to mitigate the disastrous effects of a mains burst both socially and corporately.
System Features:
• Rugged and waterproof • Minute by Minute flow readings • Tri-parameter sensing: • Pressure • Flow • Noise • "Learn Profiling" • "FastLine" and SMS transmission facilities • Remote configuration • No external Power supply required • Comms via GSM network • Connects to correlators for in line leakage detection without removal of flow sensor
System Benefits:
• Fast burst notification • Asset identification – which trunk main • Burst location – which "shuttable" section • Integrated into company control systems, or remotely managed by Ashridge Engineering • Allowing faster repairs, minimising flood damage • Ease of installation • Long life, self contained units
The HydroGuard project has been a technical co-operation with our water company partner for the last 4 years. Valuable insight has been gained into the behaviour of mains bursts and the electronic measurement signature which prefaces a burst. Ashridge Engineering has provided a significant number of trial systems for our customer and is ready to roll out a dedicated, field tested product designed for operation in all undertakings that carry water in large diameter pipes.
