Bank of nonlinear observers for the detection of multiple leaks in a pipeline

Abstract

Extends a procedure for multiple leaks detection in a pipeline assuming a linear model to the nonlinear case. The residual generation problem is tackled in two parts. First, the nonlinear subsystem that is only decoupled from one leak and is coupled to the rest of the considered leaks is obtained. Since this subsystem for each leak satisfies a triangular form, the second part of the procedure involves the design of a set of nonlinear observers to generate the residuals which are sensitive to the leaks set. The procedure is validated taking real data of a water pilot pipeline 132mts long.