Slide Solutions LEAK DETECTION CONDITION ASSESSMENT

KenWave’s Dynamic Response based-Technology supports asset managers by providing reliable information on pipe wall conditions, leaks, air pockets, and other anomalies. Current technologies do not deliver this information at the scale and quality needed for proactive asset management. With millions of kilometers of pipe near or past their original design lives, utilities cannot afford a buried asset information gap.

KenWave’s AI-powered analysis engine creates a “virtual twin” of a pipe to deduce wall thickness, stiffness, leak location, tuberculation, and other parameters from the measured response of the physical pipe to controlled dynamic response excitation from the KenWave Wave Generator.

This “twin” can be further analyzed to provide estimates of a pipe’s remaining service life, and to model its responses to external effects.

How Does KenWave Technology Work?

KenWave Technology is a completely non-invasive dynamic response system. External transducers generate special signals that are detected by non-invasive multi-parameter sensors. A physics-based AI-powered analysis engine delivers all pipe condition metrics. KenWave Technology offers significant improvement in accuracy and pipe compatibility. With the portable survey units, a two-person crew can inspect over 2.5 km per day without any service disruption, risk of damage or potential for contamination.

What Sort of Information Does KenWave Technology Provide?

KenWave Technology provides information on the condition of the pipe wall, by determining a stiffness profile of the pipe wall down to a resolution of a few feet. Leaks and obstructions are typically located within 3 pipe diameters. KenWave Technology also identifies the brittle phase of PVC and PE pipes and possible “out-of-round” conditions. Significant levels of tuberculation can be detected in metallic pipes. Remaining service life and other parameters are estimated by combining KenWave Technology data with a pipe’s operating history, live loads, corrosion models, and other data.

What is the Difference Between Condition Assessment and Water Leak Detection?

KenWave Technology is optimized to perform condition assessment and leak detection as a bonus simultaneously.

Leak detection uses the leak as the primary acoustic source and provides a single data point, the location of the leak. This has limited predictive power for asset management purposes but can be faster and more economical leak detection solution than condition assessment. As KenWave Technology is an external system the cost advantage of leak detection vs condition assessment is smaller than it is for invasive technologies.

Condition assessment provides not only the location of acoustic anomalies such as leaks, but as it uses an external sound source, it also provides many more data points such as the location of anomalies, as well as the wall stiffness profile. For metallic pipes, a wall thickness profile can be calculated. These additional data points are combined to create a “virtual twin” of the physical pipe: a powerful tool for modelling current and future scenarios that may impact operability. Condition assessment not only exposes existing faults, but it also gives the ability to predict future ones.

water leak detection solutions
water leak detection solutions