Leakage detection method of underground heating pipeline based on improved wavelet threshold function

For urban heating pipeline network, the intelligent and precise detection is an important guarantee for urban heating infrastructure of the safe and low-carbon operation. Heating pipe network was directly buried in the soil and difficult to detect the leakage point due to lack of non-excavation detection method for rapid repair. An improved noise reduction algorithm of the wavelet threshold function coupled with the acoustic method was used for the directly buried pipe leakage detection. Large-scale leakage experimental tests were used to validate the reliability. The influences of temperature, pressure, flowrates and leakage distance on the frequency and time domains were then investigated. Results show that the improved threshold function could well detect the leakage for directly buried hot water heating pipes. When the temperature increases, the leakage frequency domain spreads from 200 - 800 Hz to 50–1500 Hz. The pressure, flow rate, and leak point location could affect the amplitude feature. The accuracy ranges of the improved method in the different location, temperature and pressure and flowrates are separately 0.11–2.36%, 0.11–1.96%,0.11–3.49% and 0.16–1.55%, respectively. •An improved wavelet threshold function is presented and verified.•Time-frequency variations before and after pipeline leakage are studied.•The effects on the frequency domain and positioning accuracy are investigated.