Detection of water pipeline leakage based on Raman distributed optical fiber sensing

A system for detecting leakage of water pipeline is built based on the Raman distributed optical fiber sensing technique. Feasibility of the system is experimentally studied and a program for automatical alarm is developed. The results demonstrate that when the leakage of water causes a temperature variation no less than 1°C relative to the surrounding, the distributed optical fiber sensors are able to detect and locate the leakage. To some extent the water leakage spreading range can be shown, and when there are two or more leaks spaced by no less than 1m, the system can successfully identify the number of leaks.