[Explanation] A billiard-sized ball is wrapped in foam cotton and turned into a "blue bowling ball". Putting it into the municipal water supply pipeline can provide accurate data for daily inspection and maintenance.
The sphere is pushed by the water flow to "authorize" the potential risks in its exclusive "pipe playground".
On January 25, the reporter came to the Hefei Institute of Public Safety of Tsinghua University, and the staff demonstrated this wonderful "authentication" journey on site.
[Concurrent] Li Yunfei, postdoctoral researcher, Hefei Institute of Public Security, Tsinghua University
The first is to put the test ball into the pipeline under test through our self-developed delivery device, and then the ball will follow the transportation medium inside the pipeline, such as a water supply pipeline, and move along the pipeline with the flow of water. When the ball passes through the leakage point of the pipeline, the leakage sound wave generated by the pipeline leakage will be collected, and the leakage sound wave signal will be recorded.
[Explanation] This is a pipeline inspection ball developed by the Intelligent Safety Equipment Research Center of Hefei Public Safety Research Institute of Tsinghua University.
According to reports, the detection ball is composed of a spherical detector, a ground marker and a data analysis host.
As the core component of the leak detection system, the spherical detector is a waterproof aluminum core with a diameter of about 6 cm. The components include a microprocessor, an acoustic sensor, a rotation sensor, and an acoustic pulse transmitter.
The seemingly ordinary "small ball" has a strong "hard core".
[Concurrent] Li Yunfei, postdoctoral researcher, Hefei Institute of Public Security, Tsinghua University
Because each leak hole has a different shape, it may be hole-like, thread-like, or crack-like.
So we mean to determine a leak through this kind of experiment, that is, the smallest leak that can be detected is 0.3 liters per minute.
The concept of leakage of 0.3 liters per minute is equivalent to less than a bottle of mineral water in one minute.
[Explanation] It is understood that before this technology was tackled, the inspection price of foreign inspection companies was about 50,000 yuan per kilometer. The pipeline inspection ball technology independently developed by the Hefei Institute of Public Safety not only broke the foreign technology monopoly, but also greatly reduced it. The cost of testing is reduced, while surpassing traditional testing methods to achieve a qualitative improvement.
[Concurrent] Li Yunfei, postdoctoral researcher, Hefei Institute of Public Security, Tsinghua University
One of the advantages of our pipeline inspection ball is that it can detect long-distance pipelines, and there is no need for human intervention in the inspection process. As long as it is put into the pipeline, it can automatically detect, so it is more convenient to operate. , And the positioning accuracy is much higher than that of manual listening.
Our positioning accuracy can reach within ±2 meters, which are unmatched by traditional methods.
[Explanation] It is reported that as of the end of 2020, pipeline inspection balls have been put into use in cities including Hefei, Luoyang and Wenzhou.
Statistics show that from January 2017 to the present, thanks to this small pipeline detection ball, there have been 13 early warning events such as road collapse caused by water leakage in Hefei’s pipe network, 5 water hammer warnings, and 10 water supply burst warnings, effective It guarantees the safe operation of the urban lifeline projects within the monitoring range. While improving the level of urban safety management, it also improves the happy life index of urban residents.
[Concurrent] Li Yunfei, postdoctoral researcher, Hefei Institute of Public Security, Tsinghua University
At present, our pipeline inspection ball is mainly for the inspection of water supply pipelines. In the later period, we will expand its inspection capabilities and apply it to petroleum pipelines, including fire-fighting pipelines.
Reporter Zhang Jun and Chu Weiwei from Hefei, Anhui
Editor in charge: [Li Yuxin]