Diagnosis of a transmission main by means of transients caused by a pump switch-off

Transient analysis is a powerful tool for the diagnosis of pressurized pipeline systems, based on the comparison of pressure signals acquired during transients with the results of analytical or numerical models. In this paper the analysis of a transient caused by a pump switch-off is used for the diagnosis of a transmission main managed by Sicilia Acque s.p.a. The measured pressure signals are compared with the results of a frequency domain based numerical model simulating the occurrence of a singularity in the system. The shown results confirm that accidental but rather common functioning conditions of pumping systems, such as pump switch on and off, can be easily and effectively used for their diagnosis.