Abstract
Internal corrosion of water distribution piping is often difficult to detect, diagnose, and mitigate, especially if the problems are localized. Corrosion can cause leaks, premature piping failures, and poor water quality in water distribution systems. New commercially available in-situ sensors can detect active corrosion and/or corrosive water and can notify facilities engineers that there is a problem. A new field demonstration of these sensors will be described in this paper.
Computer-based simulations of water distribution systems can also be used as a diagnostic tool to help solve corrosion problems. Simulations can help pinpoint areas in which localized hydraulic and/or water quality conditions are contributing to internal piping corrosion. An example will be presented in which an off-line dynamic simulation was used to help locate and diagnose a series of localized corrosion problems in an actual water distribution system.
Finally, the above sensors and simulations can be interfaced together with Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) systems to provide a highly accurate, near-real-time description of water system operation. Such a system can be used to automatically control the dosing of water treatment chemicals so that corrosion is mitigated.
