Condition assessment in hydraulically noisy pipeline systems using a pressure wave splitting method

For the past couple of decades, researchers have been investigating the use of hydraulic transients (pressure surge waves) to investigate the condition of a pipeline system, and detect anomalies such as leaks, blockages, or pipe wall condition. The use of controlled hydraulic transients, combined with signal processing methods on measured pressure responses, have had a demonstrated utility for pipeline condition assessment, largely owing to the sensitivity of the hydraulic transient waves to the said anomalies. This paper presents a simple extension to these existing methods by proposing a technique that does not require a controlled hydraulic transient input, but utilizes existing hydraulic noise (in the form of wide-sense stationary hydraulic signals) within the system of interest to perform the diagnosis.