Wavenumber Prediction of the Wave in Fluid-filled Pipes for Water Leakage/Blockage Detection

In this paper, a wave propagation model is developed to investigate the wave propagation in fluid-filled steel pipe. Based on the Kennard shell equations the investigation is achieved under the conditions of fully coupled to the interior acoustic field. The equations are solved by a numerical optimisation method. Wavenumbers are obtained in the circumferential breathing mode and beam type mode. The predicted wavenumber from the model are well agreed with that from tests, clarifying the inconsistence with that of conventional wave speeds. Tests are conducted on pipeline blockage detection. Smoothed pseudo Wigner-Ville distribution method has been used to extract the frequency component of the propagating waves in the coupling system. Blockage position has been obtained using smoothed pseudo Wigner-Ville distribution.