SBIR Phase I: Water Distribution Network Condition Assessment Instrumentation

This Small Business Innovation Research Phase I project will focus on the development of instrumentation for the water pipeline industry to assess a comprehensive set of common water pipe failure modes. The water industry faces an aging infrastructure with a fast growing need for maintenance, while at the same time facing budgetary constraints and external pressures to reduce costs. Failure to maintain these systems can lead to numerous issues, including 1) inefficiencies leading to increased energy usage and cost, or customer service issues, 2) poor water quality resulting in poor taste or color, or the presence of dangerous pathogens, and 3) delivery failure, which costs $2.8 billion yearly. The proposed instrumentation addresses the global need for condition assessment within municipal distribution and transmission water lines. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) forecasts that U.S. water transmission and distribution systems alone will require investment of $247.5 billion between now and 2030. As part of this effort to identify and rehabilitate aging drinking water systems, the EPA recently identified the need "for low cost inspection methods to conduct screening for high risk locations in all pipe types for further assessment". The proposed instrumentation provides new capabilities to meet these industry-identified needs. Failure modes may result in a wide spectrum of negative effects ranging from energy loss to revenue loss to catastrophic failure with loss of life. The proposed instrumentation introduces innovative technology to detect, identify, and locate faults representing failure modes and/or precursors to failure modes within a water distribution pipeline network. This project will investigate an extensive sensor measurement protocol and exploit the measurement data using advanced statistical signal processing and pattern recognition techniques. Reliable prediction of fault locations will eliminate the cost of over-maintenance while preventing the significant costs incurred due to failures. Utilization of this instrumentation will allow utilities to more effectively balance the trade-offs between allocation of maintenance resources and the risks associated with pipeline failures.