• Transactions of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.95-104
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• 2004

Leaks in underground pipelines can cause social, environmental and economical problems. One of relevant countermeasures against leaks is to find and repair of leak points of the pipes. Leak noise is a good source to identify the location of leak points of the pipelines. Although there have been several methods to detect the leak location with leak noise, such as listening rods, hydrophones or ground microphones, they have not been so efficient tools. In this paper, accelermeters aroused to detect leak locations which could provide an easier and more efficient method. Filtering, signal processing and algorithm of raw input data from sensors for the detection of leak location are described. A 120m-long and a 70m-long experimental pipeline systems are installed and the results with the systems show that the algorithm with the accelerometers offers accurate pinpointing for leaks location detection. Theoretical analysis of sound wave propagation speed of water in underground pipes, which is critically important in leak locating, is also described.

• Geophysics and Geophysical Exploration
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.177-183
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• 2005

The subject of this paper is research into the application of electrical resistivity monitoring to detecting the water leakage of water utilization facilities. For this purpose, we installed a comprehensive monitoring system consisting of resistivity measurement, inclinometer, piezometer, and water gauge at an embankment. Using this monitoring system, we monitored the various kinds of measurement data and compared the resistivity structures and that of hydrological and engineering data in order to investigate the water leakage and stability of the embankment. The variant images of electrical resistivity at the embankment were provided from the monitoring data and we could accurately locate the portion of which resistivities have sharply changed. Furthermore, we could estimate the stability of the embankment more effectively and quantitatively by jointly interpreting the monitoring data of resistivity, water level, pore water pressure, and subsurface displacement. The monitoring experiments in this study led us to the conclusion that for the efficient maintenance of the water utilization facilities, monitoring the resistivity data and hydrological data would be much more preferable to performing the just one-time measurements.

• Journal of Korea Water Resources Association
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• v.53 no.10
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• pp.845-859
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• 2020

Climate change and recent heat waves have drawn public attention toward other environmental issues, such as water pollution in the form of algal blooms, chemical leaks, and oil spills. Water pollution by the leakage of chemicals may severely affect human health as well as contaminate the air, water, and soil and cause discoloration or death of crops that come in contact with these chemicals. Chemicals that may spill into water streams are often colorless and water-soluble, which makes it difficult to determine whether the water is polluted using the naked eye. When a chemical spill occurs, it is usually detected through a simple contact detection device by installing sensors at locations where leakage is likely to occur. The drawback with the approach using contact detection sensors is that it relies heavily on the skill of field workers. Moreover, these sensors are installed at a limited number of locations, so spill detection is not possible in areas where they are not installed. Recently hyperspectral images have been used to identify land cover and vegetation and to determine water quality by analyzing the inherent spectral characteristics of these materials. While hyperspectral sensors can potentially be used to detect chemical substances, there is currently a lack of research on the detection of chemicals in water streams using hyperspectral sensors. Therefore, this study utilized remote sensing techniques and the latest sensor technology to overcome the limitations of contact detection technology in detecting the leakage of hazardous chemical into aquatic systems. In this study, we aimed to determine whether 18 types of hazardous chemicals could be individually classified using hyperspectral image. To this end, we obtained hyperspectral images of each chemical to establish a spectral library. We expect that future studies will expand the spectral library database for hazardous chemicals and that verification of its application in water streams will be conducted so that it can be applied to real-time monitoring to facilitate rapid detection and response when a chemical spill has occurred.

• Journal of Korean Tunnelling and Underground Space Association
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.257-267
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• 2008

Tunnels acting as drains involve groundwater-related problems such as deterioration of drainage systems or leakage through the linings. Generally initial and minor leakage problems can not be recognized by naked eyes. When the leakage over the linings is noticed, damages to structures and facilities have already occurred and could be considerable. Therefore it is vital to recognize initial leakage as early as possible and provide appropriate measures. Detection of leakage under operation requires installing piezometer. However, that may cause destruction of water proofing sheet which is generally not allowed. In this study electric resistivity method, one of the geophysical surveys, was adopted to detect possible leakage through tunnel linings. Physical lining models were made in the laboratory. The electric response was monitored for varying hydraulic conditions. It is shown that the method is very useful to detect initial leakage and monitor the malfunction of drainage system. Furthermore the method can also be used to check the quality of any repairing works of linings.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.54 no.12
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• pp.4481-4490
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• 2022

In this study, a new rupture disk corrosion test (RDCT) method was developed for real-time detection of stress corrosion cracking (SCC) initiation of Alloy 600 in a primary water environment of pressurized water reactors. In the RDCT method, one side of a disk specimen was exposed to a simulated primary water at high temperature and pressure while the other side was maintained at ambient pressure, inducing a dome-shaped deformation and tensile stress on the specimen. When SCC occurs in the primary water environment, it leads to the specimen rupture or water leakage through the specimen, which can be detected in real-time using a pressure gauge. The tensile stress applied to the disk specimen was calculated using a finite element analysis. The tensile stress was calculated to increase as the specimen thickness decreased. The SCC initiation time of the specimen was evaluated by the RDCT method, from which result it was found that the crack initiation time decreased with the decrease of specimen thickness owing to the increase of applied stress. After the SCC initiation test, many cracks were observed on the specimen surface in an intergranular fracture mode, which is a typical characteristic of SCC in the primary water environment.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.35 no.1
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• pp.15-25
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• 2021

In this study, a method of leakage detection was proposed to locate leak position for a reservoir pipeline valve system using wavelet coherence analysis for an injected pressure wave. An unsteady flow analyzer handled nonlinear valve maneuver and corresponding experimental result were compared. Time series of pressure head were analyzed through wavelet coherence analysis both for no leak and leak conditions. The leak information can be obtained through either time domain reflectometry or the difference in wavelet coherence level, which provide predictions in terms of leak location. The reconstructed pressure signal facilitates the identification of leak presence comparing with existing wavelet coherence analysis.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering Conference
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• 2003.05a
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• pp.821-826
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• 2003

Leaks in underground pipelines can cause social, environmental and economical problems. One of a good contermeasures of leaks Is to find and repair of leak points of pipes. Leak noise is a good source to identify the location of leak points of pipelines. Although there have been several methods to detect the leak location with leak noise, such as listening rods, hydrophones or ground microphones, they were not so efficient tools beca. In this paper, two accelermeters are used to detect leak locations which could provide an easier and efficient method. The filtering, signal processing and algorithm is described for the detection of leak location. A 120m-long pipeline system for experiment is installed and the results with the system show that the algorithm with the two accelerometers gives very accurate pinpointing of leaks. Theoretical analysis of sound wave propagation speed in underground pipes is also described.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.34 no.1
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• pp.44-52
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• 2014

Leakage is an important factor to be considered for the management of underground water supply pipelines in a smart water grid system, especially if the pipelines are aged and buried under the pavement or various structures of a highly populated city. Because the exact detection of the location of such leaks in pipelines is essential for their efficient operation, a new methodology for leak location detection based on frequency band variation, windowing filters, and probability is proposed in this paper. Because the exact detection of the leak location depends on the precision of estimation of time delay between sensor signals due to leak noise, some window functions that offer weightings at significant frequencies are applied for calculating the improved cross-correlation function. Experimental results obtained by applying this methodology to an actual buried water supply pipeline, ~ 253.9 m long and made of cast iron, revealed that the approach of frequency band variation with those windows and probability offers better performance for leak location detection.

• Journal of Power System Engineering
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.39-45
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• 2009

The attenuation of the fundamental non-torsional modes that propagate down buried steel water pipes has been studied. The mode shapes, mode attenuation due to leakage into the surrounding medium and the scattering of the modes as they interact with pipe joints and fittings have been investigated. In the low frequency region the mode predicted to dominate over significant propagation distances approximates a plane wave in the water within pipe. The established acoustic technique used to locate leaks in buried steel water pipes assumes that leak noise propagates as a single non-dispersive mode at a velocity related to the low frequency asymptote of this water borne mode.

• Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
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• v.18 no.10
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• pp.23-34
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• 2017

As the electrical property of fully saturated soils is dependent on the pore water, it has been commonly used for the detection of the contamination into the ground. The objective of this study is to investigate the electrical characteristics according to the salinity and the lead concentration in fully saturated soils. Fresh water and saline water with the salinity of 1%, 2% and 3%, which are mixed with 6 different lead solutions with the range of 0~10 mg/L, are prepared in the cylindrical cell incorporated with sensors for measuring electrical resistance and time domain reflectometry signal. Then, the dried sands are water-pluviated into the cell. The electrical resistance and the time domain reflectometry signal are used to estimate the electrical conductivity. Test results show that electrical conductivity determined from electrical resistance at the frequency of 1 kHz continuously increases with an increase in the lead concentration, thus it may be used for the estimation of the contaminant level. In addition, the electrical conductivity estimated by the time domain reflectometry changes even at very low concentration of lead, the variation rate decreases as the lead concentration increases. Thus, the time domain reflectometry can be used for the investigation of the heavy metal leakage. This study demonstrates that complementary characteristics of electrical resistance and time domain reflectometry may be used for the detection of the leakage and contamination of heavy metal in coastal and marine environments.