On Tuesday, the Kerala Water Authority (KWA) literally set the ball
rolling in the capital as part of vetting a ‘smart’ technology for
detecting leaks in water mains.
KWA engineers on Tuesday afternoon
released the ‘SmartBall’, a small spherical device fitted with a
sensor, through an air valve on Pipeline Road, Ambalamukku, and
retrieved it successfully from the Kowdiar end. The ball, smaller than a
regular cricket ball but covered with permeable foam, is an acoustic
leak-detection device capable of spotting even small leakages in
pipelines.
Developed by a Canadian company, the SmartBall is
perhaps the only technology that can locate even small leaks which are
otherwise undetectable using conventional ‘surface’ technologies, KWA
Managing Director Ashok Kumar Singh said.
’The technologies
available are purely subjective and require a high-level of expertise.
We have not purchased the ball yet, but testing it,’’ he said. The modus
operandi is quite simple. The ball is dropped into the pipeline and is
carried along with the flow. The sound inside the pipeline is recorded
by the sensor and variations – a leak will have a hissing sound, for
instance – are also picked up.
’It’s like having a person inside
the pipeline itself examining it for leaks. Since the ball is
GPS-enabled, we will be able to pinpoint the location of the leak once
the ball is retrieved,’’ a senior KWA official said.
But this
technique is not without its drawbacks when used in complicated,
inter-connected water supply networks such as the one in
Thiruvananthapuram. The foam covering on the ball is one way of tackling
it, say KWA officials.
For example, if the ball is released into a
500-mm pipeline, the coating can be thickened to prevent it from being
drawn into a smaller pipeline that opens into the bigger one.
The
KWA is toying with smart leak-detection technologies at a time when the
water supply utility has been plagued by leaks on the old pipelines
criss-crossing the city.
In one instance, multiple leaks on the
main 1,200-mm pipeline had even prompted the government to set up a
committee to investigate.
‘SmartBall’
KWA is testing
‘SmartBall’, a spherical acoustic-based leak detecting device that is
released into water mains. Smaller than a cricket ball, the SmartBall is
GPS-enabled.
