About SoundPrint® AFO - Water and Wastewater
Owners of major PCCP pipelines have had limited choices available for managing their entire inventory. Limitations in available acoustic monitoring technologies meant that only short sections of the pipeline could be monitored at any given time. Assessing the entire length of a pipeline could therefore take many years, and was also cost prohibitive.
New developments in acoustic monitoring have yielded a fibre optic sensor that is more cost-effective for long reaches of pipe. Typically deployed in pipelines while shutdown and dewatered, the Acoustic Fibre Optic (AFO) system can be deployed in some scenarios while the pipeline is in operation.
This monitoring configuration is capable of monitoring up to 40km from one data acquisition system. Sensors consist of four or more glass fibres bundled with a strength member and encased in a protective sheathing. Cable will be installed through new valves in existing manhole chambers, and lengths of cable will be spliced together at approximately 5km intervals.
A laser is used to project light down the fibre and a data acquisition system monitors reflections generated by the acoustic activity in a pipeline. The entire fibre cable acts as a sensor, so the sensor is never further than a pipe diameter from a wire break. Another advantage of the system is that no electronics are placed in the water flow, so monitoring system noise is nearly eliminated.
A typical cable exit and splice location detail is shown below.
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