A study of geophysical methods for water leak location

摘要

The reduction of leakage from potable water supply is an essential element in the strategy to achieve sustainable use of the most precious natural resource. Both electromagnetic (EM) induction and acoustic surveys were performed at the Esholt Hall controlled leak test site in West Yorkshire. A Geonics EM-38 was used to build a 13.5 x 35.5m grid, with readings every 0.25 m and survey lines 0.5 m apart. The EM survey showed that the water saturation from the leak caused an increase in bulk ground conductivity, this ～20mS/m increase was observable at the surface. The acoustic trials were performed using Radcom SoundSens~(TM) acoustic loggers. Three different survey styles were used, all of which were at the surface and did not require access to the pipe network. The increase in amplitude adjacent to the leak position was observed during all of the acoustic surveys. This initial success should be built on before these techniques can be applied within industry.