A Gippland Victora water authority needed to monitor the structural integrity of an underground discharge pipeline that carried waste water from a food and dairy processing plant through farm land to an ocean outfall. Structural failure of the pipeline at any point would cause ground subsidence and contamination of grazing areas.
Small breaks or leaks of waste water up to 5 litres per second had previously gone undetected until either pungent odours or soggy ground on farming property was noticed, at which time the damage had already been done.
To overcome this problem, solar powered battery backed telemetry stations and magnetic flow meters are used at critical and remote locations along the pipeline and continually transmit flow rates to a central monitoring PLC.
Should the flow rates vary more than 2 litres/second for a predetermined time at any point along the pipeline, indicating that the pipeline had fractured, the system automatically and simultaneously shuts down two high speed pumps while preventing two backup pumps from starting, closes the pieline discharge valve and notifies caretaker personnel instantaneously.
Maintenance personnel are automatically notified via their mobile telephones that a fracture has occurred and the pumps have shut down. With a glance at the monitoring panel they can then determine the location of the pipeline fracture or break and carry out repairs as required.
This system eliminates excessive response delays and reduces the possibility of ground contamination.
