Wavenumber prediction of waves in buried pipes for water leak detection

Water leaks are a topic of great concern in Britain and many other countries, because of decreasing water supplies and the deterioration of old pipework. Correlation techniques are widely used in leak detection, but for these to be effective, the propagation wavespeeds and wave attenuation must be known. Relatively predictable for metal pipes, these are largely unknown for the newer plastic pipes, being highly dependent on the pipe wall properties and the surrounding medium. In this paper, pipe equations for n = 0 axisymmetric wave motion are derived for a fluid-filled pipe, surrounded by an infinite elastic medium which can support both longitudinal and shear waves. These equations are solved for two wave types, s = 1, 2, which correspond to a fluid dominated wave and an axial shell wave, and expressions for a complex wavenumber for each wave are given. (C) 2002 Academic Press.