Leak & Intrusion Detection On Drinking Water Distribution Pipes
With our DALI pipeline monitoring system, which is based on Distributed Acoustic Sensing (DAS), we monitored several PE drinking water distribution pipes. We inserted the fiber optic sensing cable through fire hydrants and were able to perform the entire installation without taking the pipe out of service. After the cable insertion was completed, we were able to detect several tests leaks within less than ten minutes.
The installation was part of the DALI mobile system, which is designed to find leaks in smaller (distribution) pipes on an 'on-call' basis. This means that in a single day, a fiber optic cable is installed in the pipe, DAS measurements are performed to locate all leaks in the pipe, and the cable is retracted to restore the pipe to its original state. The mobile system works in any pipe material including plastic pipes, meaning that it can find leaks where traditional acoustic methods fail.
More info on or DALI product can be found on https://www.dalimonitoring.com/