Leakage Detection in Water Pipeline Using Micro-controller

Abstract

This methodology uses information from the water flow sensors which recognize leakage in water pipeline progressively. Testing the leakage in pipeline is done on every sensor hub and data is then exchanged to the Arduino UNO micro-controller for further procedure. The output of this proposed strategy can be accomplished by contrasting different water flow reading with the sensors. The threshold value is set by taking examination of the sensor reading. If the water flow reading is not exactly limit esteem, at that point leakage is available in the pipeline is appeared on the yield show. Consistent flow is set for no leakage condition.

Full text

1st International Conference on Advances in Science, Engineering and Robotics Technology (ICASERT 2019)
978-1-7281-3445-1/19/$31.00 ©2019 IEEE
Leakage Detection in Water Pipeline Using Micro-
controller
Muhammad Arman Uddin
Deptertment of Computer Science and
Engineering
BRAC University
Dhaka, Bangladesh
muhammad.arman.uddin@g.bracu.ac.b
d
Hasibul Hasan Sabuj
Deptertment of Computer Science and
Engineering
BRAC University
Dhaka, Bangladesh
hasibul.hasan.sabuj@g.bracu.ac.bd
Mohammad Mohibul hossain
Deptertment of Computer Science and
Engineering
BRAC University
Dhaka, Bangladesh
mohamed.mohibul.hossain@g.bracu.ac.
bd
Samin Yasar Seaum
Deptertment of Computer Science and
Engineering
BRAC University
Dhaka, Bangladesh
samin.yasar.seaum@g.bracu.ac.bd
Akil Ahmed
Deptertment of Computer Science and
Engineering
BRAC University
Dhaka, Bangladesh
akil.ahmed@g.bracu.ac.bd
Abstract—This methodology uses information from the
water flow sensors which recognize leakage in water pipeline
progressively. Testing the leakage in pipeline is done on every
sensor hub and data is then exchanged to the Arduino UNO
micro-controller for further procedure. The output of this
proposed strategy can be accomplished by contrasting different
water flow reading with the sensors. The threshold value is set
by taking examination of the sensor reading. If the water flow
reading is not exactly limit esteem, at that point leakage is
available in the pipeline is appeared on the yield show.
Consistent flow is set for no leakage condition.
Keywords— Water Flow Sensor, Arduino UNO, Pipeline
Leakage, Flow Monitor.
I. I
NTRODUCTION
Water is a significant element for each country. Water
leakages are being one of the serious issues which each
country is confronting [1]. Financially, leaks are costing
where in addition to wasting water; it devours significant
capacity to treat water or to exchange it starting with one point
then onto the next [8]. In underground pipeline leakage
identification is a troublesome assignment. Now a days so
many countries are suffering in terms of financial loss, fitness,
energy and surroundings due to pipe leakages. In a study of
smart water systems, it is seen that the leakage rate
percentages in Bangladesh is the highest among many
countries [1]. According to Dhaka Water and Sewer Authority
(WASA), they faced system loss (non-revenue water) 22% in
2015 [2]. Also, Dhaka WASA shows that water supply
demand is 2250 MLD, where the supply is 2420 MLD but
every citizen of this city does not get safe water from Dhaka
WASA though there is no shortage of supply of safe water
[2,9]. In Bangladesh along with water leakage, unauthorized
connections also make the situation worst for Dhaka WASA
[7]. As of late, however, leakage checking hypothesis and
application has extraordinary advancement [10,11].
There are several methods in literature for detection of
leakages in pipelines such as infrared, SVM Classification and
automated meter reading [3-5]. The Infrared technique is
utilized to recognize pipe leakages moderately in the nations
which contain deserts using impact of the difference in the
temperature of the ground because of the leakages. But the
disadvantage of this is the countries in which even least
precipitation occurs, this method does not work properly.
However, the automated meter reading method measures
meter read using a vehicle equipped with a communication
technology like GSM-GPRS. But the constraint of the method
is slow data rate and high complexity. In the contrast, In SVM
Classification method, detection of pipe leakage and location
is predicted from a dataset of CSIR- Central Electronics
Engineering Research Institute (CEERI). Without this
particular dataset it won’t give exact output for detecting
leakage and location. Nevertheless, there are few methods
where wireless communication system is introduced [12-14]
which is a future plan of this project.
To recognize the constant water leakage this project is
proposed which utilizes two water flow sensors, When water
flows through the rotor, rotor rolls. Its speed changes with
various rate of flow. This project utilizes water flow sensor as
it is effectively accessible in the market, it gives extraordinary
productivity and savvy. Sensor detected information is put
away in Arduino UNO micro-controller in which pressing is
finished. This information is exchanged to the PC or head
office through wire. In background of PC different strategies
were utilized for examination of sensor information, for
example, Arduino IDE.
The rest of the paper is organized as follows. Section 2
describes the theoretical study and methodology that we are
going through. Section 3 describes the proposed model with a
block diagram, circuit components with detail description.
Additionally, hardware implementation of the proposed
model is demonstrated in this section. Moreover, Section 4
shows the result data and analyze it. Finally, section 5
concludes the paper.
II. METHODOLOGY
AND
THEORY
DISCUSSION
The data collected from water flow sensor are taken into
micro-controller. Precise water flow estimation is a crucial
step both in the terms of subjective and financial perspectives.
Water flow sensor have proven excellent machine for
estimating water flow, and now it is anything but difficult to
construct a water monitoring system utilizing the G1/2" Water
Flow sensor. This sensor sits in accordance with the water line
and contains a pin wheel sensor to quantify how much water
has traveled through it. There is an integrated magnetic Hall-
Effect sensor that outputs an electrical pulse with each
revolution. Here we have decided flow rate by change in

velocity of water. Velocity relies upon the pressure that forces
the through pipelines. As the pipe's cross-sectional area is
known and stays steady, the normal speed means that the
stream rate. In such cases, the principle for deciding the water
flow rate is
Q = V * A (1)
Where, Q is flow rate/total flow of water through the pipe,
V is average velocity of the flow and A is the cross-sectional
area of the pipe [6].
Next, the data from two points are analyzed to determine
the result. The water flow of these two points can be denoted
as Q
1
and Q
2
where Q
1
is source flow and Q
2
is ending flow of
the two points.
ΔQ = |Q
1
−Q
2
| (2)
The data is taken from all the points of the systems-
Central Supplier, Hubs and end-users. The expected average
flow of water from Central Supplier to Hub and Hub to end
users are different. When the flow is less than the expected
average flow the system detects a leakage as ΔQ will be
greater. And if Q
2
is close to zero then there might be a clog
between the two points. A threshold will be determined for
normal flow of water by the minimum and maximum value of
ΔQ denoted as T
max
and T
min
respectively. The decisions that
can be taken are
• T
max
> ΔQ > T
min,
→ Normal flow
• ΔQ > T
max
→ Leakage
• Q
2
≈ 0 → Clogged pipe
A. Hardwear
1) Sensors utilized:
Water flow sensor comprises of a plastic valve body, a
water motor, and a hall-effect sensor [13]. At the point when
water moves through the motor, it rolls. Later on, Its speed
changes with various rate of flow. The hall-effect sensor
yields the relating pulse signal. It utilizes a basic turning wheel
that pulses a hall effect sensor. Flow rate range is 1～60L/min.
Operating temperature is ≤80 . Water pressure tolerance ℃
≤1.75MPa (Max 2MPa). Storage temperature needs to be -
25℃～+80 .℃
2) Micro-controller
Arduino Uno is a micro-controller board dependent on the
ATmega328P. It has 14 digital input/output pins (of which 6
can be utilized as PWM outputs), 6 analog input, a 16 MHz
quartz crystal, a USB association, a power jack, an ICSP
header and a reset button. It contains everything expected to
help the micro-controller; just associate it to a PC with a USB
link or power it with an AC-to-DC connector or battery to
begin.
Fig. 1. Water flow sensor pin layout required for the system.
3) LCD display
The LCD display is used to observe the data which are
useful for users for analysis. 16*2 LCD display is used here.
The data lines 4-7 are connected to the Arduino UNO.
Fig. 2. LCD Pin layout of the system

B. Flow chart
Fig. 3. Flowchart
The above flowchart shows how leakage detection
functions in the system. Leakage detection happens between
every two nodes of WDS. To start with, flow sensor
information from source between the two nodes is taken.
Next, the ending sensor's information is taken. At that point,
ΔQ is calculated and compare it with threshold T and see
whether there is a leakage or the flow is normal. At last, the
decision output is appeared in LCD display. The checking
proceeds in a loop.
C. System Design
The system contains hardware part like water flow
sensors, power supply, microcontroller and LCD display.
Fig. 4.
The components of our project are shown in the figure. (a)
is the Arduino Uno (b) is the bread board (c) is the 16x2 LCD (d)
is the flow sensor.
III. P
ROPOSED MODEL
The whole system architecture follows the water
distribution system (WDS). In earlier approaches, other
researches were not able to detect the leakage in real time [8].
The WDS approach makes it possible to get the real time data
and detects the exact location of the leakage within the
shortest possible time. The central water supplier is divided
into hubs which distribute water to the end users. Each hub
distributes water to the limited number of end-users. The
device is designed to be placed on each node shown in fig. 5.
The system can detect leakage in between two nodes. When
the node in line L
213
gives an alert for water leakage the system
determines the position of leakage in two ways. The leakage
may be in line L
21
or in line L
213
. When detecting the problem,
ΔQ calculated from Hub
2
to its end-users are same then the
problem is in line L
21
. However if only ΔQ calculated in line
L
213
determines leakage value and other two values are
expected then the problem is in line L
213
.
IV.
RESULT ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION
Fig. 4 shows the experimental test system implemented to
monitor the test section of a pipe line using two water flow
sensors. The system consists of two water flow sensors, bread
board, Arduino UNO, some wires and LCD display to show
the outputs. The test was done connecting a pipe with flow
sensors and creating water flow through the pipe to simulate
actual buried pipeline. A split was made in the pipe to
reproduce leakage. For simulation, some pipes are
used which have piped grade standard ANSI Sch40 and the
size of the pipe was NPS1. The pipe’s water velocity in the
environment was 0.5~0.7 ft/s. The average water flow was
found 1204 lit/hr on average. The proper threshold was found
as 0 lit/hr~200 lit/hr. Therefore, if ΔQ greater than 200 lit/hr
is found between two nodes then there is a leakage between
the two nodes.
TABLE I.
FLOW RATE IN DIFFERENT CONDITION
Scenarios Q1
(L/H)
Q2
(L/H)
∆Q
(L/H)
T
(L/H)
Output
1 1200 1100 100 0~200 Normal
Flow
2 1200 800 400 0~200 Leakage
3 1200 0 - 0~200 Clogged
a.
L=Liter, H=Hour, T=Threshold
Central
Supplier
Hub
3
Hub
2
Hub
1
L
21
L
2
SL
L
212
L
213
L
211
L3
L1
Limited end Users Limited end Users Limited end Users
Fig. 5. Proposed Model
Q
1
= Source Sensor Data
Q
2
= Ending Sensor Data
Calculate ∆
Q
Compare
∆
Q with T
Leakage
Water flow Normal
Display Output
Start
En
d
T
max
> ∆Q > T
min
∆Q > T
max

V.
CONCLUSION
This paper exhibits water pipeline leakage detection
model. Leakage is identified utilizing water flow sensor and
correspondence is done remotely. By comparing different
reading of sensors leakage is identified. Arduino UNO is used
to show the consequence of sensors. This model gives ongoing
leakage present in the pipeline. Utilizing this model water
misfortune and water misfortune causes, water contamination
issues that are effectively recuperated. However, there is not
much cloud computing, IoT and wireless based method has
been implemented yet to detect the leakage in pipeline. There
is various opportunity of research in this field that could be
focused.
R
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