Success Stories

MURCIA, SPAIN

  • Murcia - Spain
SCENARIO

EMUASA is one of the companies of the SUEZ group; a company that manages the water management cycle in the municipality of Murcia, providing service to almost 445,086 citizens distributed among the urban center, the orchards, and districts, across more than 890 km2.

The use of water is a priority objective for SUEZ. This purpose, together with the constant concern for the efficiency in the management of the full water management cycle requires inspecting an old section of its pipeline, specifically, a large diameter pipe (up to 800mm) that is difficult to access and one in which conducting inspections efficiently and comprehensively has been impossible to date. Hence the priority of knowing the condition of this pipe, since its age could suggest the presence of leaks, air pockets and anomalies.
RESULTS

After extracting the sphere, the information recorded by Nautilus during the inspection was processed. This consists in analyzing the recorded sound using a mathematical model developed by Aganova, which contains different spurious noises that are filtered by different signal processing techniques. This software pinpoints the location of the leaks and anomalies found, by linking acoustic records and velocity with the actual layout of the pipe, changes in direction, turbulence, etc.

Thus, after analyzing the extracted data, a total of 21 leaks were detected in the 12-km-long section inspected, which is equivalent to an average of 1.75 leaks per kilometer.

Characteristics of the inspected section

SECTION

Pipe Diameter

DN800, DN700, DN600

Length

12 km

Material

Concrete with sheet metal jacketed

Location

C2 (Murcia)

TYPE OF INCIDENT

F1 Type A Leak

Incidents: 3

F2 Type A Leak

Incidents: 8

F3 Type A Leak

Incidents: 10

Air Pocket

Incidents: 0

Anomaly

Incidents: 0

Jonathan Sánchez

Nautilus is the technology that allows you to open new horizons in leak detection projects in pipelines that are difficult to access.

The project carried out with EMUASA has given us the opportunity to verify the effectiveness of this technology in large diameter pipes in long and complex layouts.