At TU Delft, we started an experiment to collect information about water leakage. In order to detect leakages, a new method was used to detect them. Ad Groenewegen, the Waternomics technician at TU Delft, tested a microphone that is able to hear leaks. To detect leakage, a microphone is attached to a pipe, which “listens” to the vibrations and registers the data. With the use of the suitable software, we expect to be able to detect patterns in the sound fragments compared to situations without leakage. Listening to pipes Before starting the experiment, we wondered whether it was possible to hear anything using a microphone attached to a pipe. We first had to figure out which microphone can detect anything within the water pipe. After we figured out what was possible, we did not know yet whether it was possible to see any differences in the collected sound samples with or without a leakage. After selecting a suitable microphone, we knew it should be possible to hear something but not exactly what.
The experimental set-up The sound of leakage We selected the CM-200 Clip-On Contact Microphone to started experiment. As soon we did know the best way to collect the vibrations of the water within the pipes, we saw a typical sound signal for the sample without a leakage, and a slightly other signal with a small leakage. So far, these observations are based on the visual assessment of the differences of the plotted frequencies of the sound samples. We will continue to collect sound signals of the leaks, which will need to be analysed in order to provide more detail of the differences and whether there is a typical signal when there is a leakage or whether the signal is just random. But for now, we can hear the leaks!
Ad Groenewegen (TU Delft) and Solomon Seyoum (Unesco-IHE) making a test sample