Acoustic-based array leakage detection technology and experimental study for urban water supply pipeline network

• An acoustic-based array detection technology is proposed for buried pipe leakage. • Optimal arrangement of the sensor array is achieved by numerical calculation. • Kriging method has the advantage of refinement in sound field reconstruction. • The proposed model can do prediction of breakage size and leakage flow rate from the calculated sound intensity value. Urban water supply network leakage problems can lead to pipe burst, ground collapse and other accidents, seriously affecting urban production, life and operational safety. At present, among the three detection technologies of in-pipe detection, on-pipe contact detection and ground-based non-contact detection, manual listening method is commonly used for major cities, which can only determine the approximate location of the leakage point and the process is time-consuming. In this paper, we have developed ground-based acoustic array detection technology based on acoustic sensors, by modelling the sensor deployment location, and carrying out a variety of leakage conditions simulation test, established the relationship between reliability and the required sensor spacing and number, and through the acoustic signal characterization of the typical conditions, the spatial reconstruction of pipeline leakage sound field by using Kriging method realizes the accurate positioning of leakage, and thus establishes a quantitative prediction model for water pipeline leakage based on the breakage size and leakage flow rate. In the field test, the existing non-contact detection exhibited an accuracy range of ±3 ∼ 5 m, while the proposed ground-based acoustic array detection technology demonstrated an accuracy range of ±0.5 ∼ 1 m, yielding more precise results.