Assessing the Operating Condition of a Domestic Distribution System Based on the Power Spectra of High-Frequency Water Consumption Signals

Abstract

Due to the growing widespread use of high-frequency measurements in the water supply industry, new possibilities for precise analyses of water consumption are emerging. Studies on a global scale of the performance of water supply networks, i.e. entire water supply zones DMA (District Metered Area), are widely recognized. The implementation of precise measurements of the volume of water consumed at the local scale, even for individual buildings, allows for drawing up detailed patterns of water consumption, demonstrating the cyclicality of their consumption and the interpretation of behavioral aspects of potable water use. However, there is a research gap in the diagnosis of water supply networks in the use of the power spectra of high-frequency water consumption signals to learn about the periodicity of water consumption at the scale of a single building and to identify abnormal states as a result of a disturbed pattern of its power spectral density (PSD) scaling. The article presents the results of research on the variation in the PSD scaling of water consumption, indicated by periodograms, as a result of a short-term anomalous situation caused by the failure of the domestic water supply system. It is shown that, by means of spectral analysis, it is possible to observe anomalies of different magnitudes in the signal power spectrum. It was also confirmed that the developed method can be further supported by a continuous water consumption approach. The presented methodology can be applied to the water expert systems for a rapid diagnosis of the operational status of the water networks regarding the possible occurrence of water leakage.