CFD Analysis of Flow Characteristics and Diagnostics of Leaks in Water Pipelines
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Date
2024-09
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
ETASR
Abstract
This study utilizes Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) to generate pressure and flow rate values for the
analysis of flow characteristics and the diagnosis of leaks in inclined pipelines. The Semi-Implicit Method
for Pressure-Linked Equations (SIMPLE) solver in OpenFOAM software was modified to incorporate the
effect of pipe orientation angle. Subsequently, the SIMPLE solver was employed to simulate the flow of
water through the pipe. Leakage rates were observed to vary in magnitude with respect to leak position
and pipe orientation angle, except that leaks close to the flow inlet and pipes with a greater inclination
were associated with higher leakage rates. A mathematical leak model is proposed based on non-
dimensional flow variables and pipe orientation angle. To generate sufficient pressure values and leakage
rates, the CFD simulation was performed 70 times. These values were then incorporated into the
mathematical model for the leak location to be predicted. The proposed method is applicable to the
detection of leakages of varying sizes in pipelines with different orientations. Therefore, knowing the pipe
orientation angle and measurements of inlet flow rate, outlet flow rate, and pressure drop, the model can
be used to precisely locate leaks in a pipeline.
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This research article was published by Engineering, Technology & Applied Science Research volume14 2024
Keywords
CFD, incompressible flow, leakage, openFOAM, turbulent flow