Methods for the localization of a leak in open water channels

Abstract

In this paper, we present two methods for determining the position of a leak in an open water channel. The available measurements are the water level and the gate position at the upstream and downstream end of a channel reach. We assume that the size of the leak and the time it started are already estimated by a leak-detection method. Both of the proposed methods make use of a nonlinear Saint-Venant equation model of the channel where the leak is modelled as a lateral outflow. The first method makes use of a bank of N models corresponding to N possible positions of the leak along the channel. The estimated position of the leak is determined by the model which minimizes a quadratic cost funct..