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Procedia Engineering 70 (2014) 201 – 208

12th International Conference on Computing and Control for the Water Industry, CCWI2013

The characterization of Milan WDS by pumping switching off: field

test assesment
B. Brunonea,∗, S. Meniconia , M. Ferrantea , C.A. Carrettinib , C. Chiesab ,
C. Capponic , D. Segalinib
a Dipartimento di Ingegneria Civile e Ambientale, The University of Perugia, Via G. Duranti 93, 06125 Perugia, Italy
b Metropolitana Milanese S.p.A., Via del Vecchio Politecnico 8, 20121 Milano, Italy
c Consultant engineer, Perugia, Italy

Abstract
In this paper, the reliability of transients as a powerful tool in the management of real water distribution system (WDS) is tested.
The examined steel pipe system is the Novara WDS in the Northwest part of Milan, Italy and is managed by Metropolitana Mi-
lanese S.p.A. The pressure signal acquired during the first phase of a test has been analyzed on the basis of the extensive research
activity performed in the previous years in the field of transient test-based techniques for the diagnosis of pipe systems. The wavelet
transform (WT), which allows the automatic detection of singularities in noisy pressure signals, and a Lagrangian model (LM),
which evaluates the causes of discontinuities, are coupled for analyzing the pressure signal acquired in Novara WDS. The results
of such an analysis are shown and the limitation of this methodology is checked; a more reliable test procedure is assessed.


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c 2013 The Authors.
Authors. Published
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Keywords: distribution pipe systems, transient tests, diagnosis

1. Introduction

Little is known about the transient-flow behavior in complex water distribution pipe systems (WDS). However,
transient condition may be more severe in networks than in a simple system. As demonstrated in Karney and McInnis
(1990), Brunone and Carravetta (1994) the maximum transient pressure in some branched and looped systems may
exceed the corresponding pressure rise in a simple system. Pump switching (on and off) is the most commonly
recognized potential source of transients. In McInnis and Karney (1995) the effects of model demand representation
on predicted system behavior is studied. In Soares et al. (2013) the damping of transient pressurized pipe flows caused
by the pump trip is analyzed. Nevertheless, as clearly evidenced by Starczewska et al. (2013), there is still limited
knowledge about transient behavior in complex WDS and a need to increase experimental data available to analyze.
The aim of this paper is to present some field tests executed in a WDS during transients and develop a pipe system

∗ Corresponding author. Tel.: +39-075-585-3617; fax: +39-075-585-3892.

E-mail address: bruno.brunone@unipg.it

1877-7058 © 2013 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. Open access under CC BY-NC-ND license.
Selection and peer-review under responsibility of the CCWI2013 Committee
doi:10.1016/j.proeng.2014.02.023
202 B. Brunone et al. / Procedia Engineering 70 (2014) 201 – 208

Fig. 1. Milan water pipe system (the Novara WDS is highlighted in red and circled)

diagnosis tool that should simultaneously detect the asset of any device and anomaly (e.g., leak, partially closed in-
line valve, partial blockage) and determine the functioning conditions of connections. In such a context, transient
test-based techniques (TTBT) are very attractive. In fact, only pressure measurements are needed, very few tests
allow locating both leaks and branches, and the duration of tests is of the order of a few minutes (Covas and Ramos,
2010, Meniconi et al., 2011b). As a consequence, the survey costs and the interference with the functioning of the
investigated system are negligible with respect to techniques based on steady-state measurements. However, TTBT
have been tested only for quite simple systems (e.g., Brunone, 1999, Brunone and Ferrante, 2001, Mpesha et al.,
2001, Meniconi et al., 2013, Wang et al., 2001, Meniconi et al., 2011a,c,d).

2. Novara Supply System

The field tests are executed in the WDS of the City of Milan, Italy, under a convention between the Department of
Civil and Environmental Engineering of the University of Perugia and Metropolitana Milanese s.p.a. (MM), which
manages the Milan Integrated Water Service (Fig. 1). MM is responsible for the caption, purification and distribution
of drinking water. The total length of WDS is 2,360 km. All supplied water is pumped from the aquifers; there are
29 pumping stations and 548 wells and the total delivered drinking water is 230,000,000 m3 /year. All Milan pumping
stations are remotely controlled by a complex telemetry system to assure the costumer demand continuously.
The examined steel pipe system (Fig. 2a) is the Novara WDS in the northwestern part of Milan. The Novara pumping
station is one of the most modern and functional MM pumping station (Fig. 2b). The aquifer that supplies the station
is about 16 m below the ground level; the station uses 21 wells and 287 kW submersible pumps with a rated water
flow of 840 l/s and it has two tanks with a total capacity of about 16,000 m3 . The four main pumps convey water
from the tanks into the system at a rated capacity of 400 l/s each. The principal characteristics of the main pipe are
indicated in Fig. 3 and Table 1: the nominal diameter is DN800 (with the exception of the first 27.5 m). Junctions 4
and 7 connect the main pipe to dead ends by means of very short pipes (3.2 m and 0.4 m, respectively). A check valve
is installed immediately downstream the pumping group.
During tests, only one of the four pumps was functioning and pressure signal was measured immediately down-
stream the check valve by means of piezoresistive transducers with a full-range scale (f.s.) of 100 bar gauge. The
 B. Brunone et al. / Procedia Engineering 70 (2014) 201 – 208 203

(a) (b)

Fig. 2. Novara pumping station: a) pipe inside the station; and b) pumps.

Fig. 3. Schematic of the main pipe of the Novara system

Table 1. Principal characteristics of the supply pipe of the Novara system (1: pumping station).
initial node end node Length, L (m) Nominal Diameter, DN (mm)
1 2 13 900
2 3 14.5 900
3 4 260.5 800
4 5 310 800
5 6 1759.6 800
6 7 1750.2 800
7 8 476.1 800
8 9 171.7 800
9 10 107.4 800
10 11 446.3 800
11 12 989.4 800

measurement uncertainty was rated at 0.15 % of the f.s. and the time response was about 1 ms. To minimize elec-
tronic noise, the pressure transducers were driven by 24 V DC batteries. The pressures were sampled at a frequency of
1000 Hz by means of a data acquisition card (National Instruments USB-6008) with a maximum analog input single
channel sampling rate of 10 kS/s. The steady-state discharge was measured by means of a magnetic flowmeter just
upstream of the check valve. Before tests, the discharge was 370 l/s. Transients are generated by the pump switching
off and on.
As an example, in Fig. 4 transient generated by pump switching on is reported, whereas Fig. 5 shows the transient
due to the pump switching off.
204 B. Brunone et al. / Procedia Engineering 70 (2014) 201 – 208

56

54

52

50
pressure signal, HE(m)
48

46

44

42

40

38

36
0 10 20 30 40 50 60
time, t(s)

Fig. 4. Novara supply system: experimental pressure signal, HE , acquired during a pump switching on

50

45

40
pressure signal, HE(m)

35

30

25

20

15

10

5
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80
time, t(s)

Fig. 5. Novara supply system: experimental pressure signal, HE , acquired during a pump switching off

3. Method

The proposed methodology is illustrated for each step in the flow chart in Fig. 6. In particular, during a transient
test, the pressure signal, HE , is measured in a single measurement section and analyzed by means of the Wavelet
Transform (WT); WT allows detecting singularities in HE and consequently evaluating the pressure wave speed, a, of
the pipes closest to the transient generator. For further details about this method see Mallat and Zhong (1992), Mallat
and Hwang (1992) and Ferrante et al. (2007, 2009b,a). With these values of a and the schematic of the network, i.e.,
the topology of the system as a set of branches and external and internal nodes, a Lagrangian Model (LM) is run to
to capture the main characteristics of the pressure signal and evaluate the causes of its discontinuities. Such a model
 B. Brunone et al. / Procedia Engineering 70 (2014) 201 – 208 205

Fig. 6. Flow chart of the procedure for the pipe system diagnosis by means of transients

is based on the solution of the differential equations governing frictionless transients in pressurized pipe systems
(Swaffield and Boldy, 1993) and assumes the instantaneity of the maneuver.
The topology of the system permits to define the boundary condition at any node and consequently evaluate the
reflected, Δhr , and transmitted, Δht , waves for a given incident wave, Δhi . LM follows the wave generated by the
maneuver and the subsequent Δhr and Δht at any node, then records their paths and their arrival times at the nodes.
Once the pressure change occurs at a node, it must be transferred to other nodes by means of the transfer function
characteristic of the branches connected to that node, i.e., the time interval aL, with L = pipe length. If the value of
a of any pipe is not known, it has to be calibrated. Finally, LM identifies which waves have passed the measurement
section and calculates the instant of passage, generating a numerical pressure signal, HN . HN is compared with HE
in order to evaluate the differences. Such differences, i.e. singularities in HE that are absent in HN and vice versa,
could be ascribed to the presences of anomalies in the network. In order to estimate the anomalies in the examined
pipe system, LM is not reliable because the omission of the friction term as well as the assumed instantaneity of the
closure maneuver. Thus, a more complex numerical model should be used, e.g. the Method of Characteristics (Wylie
and Streeter, 1993), the Impedance Method (Fox, 1989, Wylie and Streeter, 1993, Ferrante and Brunone, 2003) and
the Transfer Matrix Method (Chaudhry, 1970, 1987). Moreover if the diagnosis of the system is still unreliable, the
field test has to be repeated; for example, more measurement sections have to be added as well as a different transient
generator has to be installed.

4. Results

As an example, the dimensionless pressure signal acquired during the pump shutting off (Fig. 7a) is analyzed
following the procedure described in Fig. 6. The dimensionless pressure signal is defined as:
H − H0
h= (1)
Hmin − H0
where the subscripts 0 and min denote the initial condition and the minimum value of H, respectively. In Fig. 7b the
WT of h is reported. For each discontinuity in the pressure signal, the WT presents a chain of maxima local moduli,
indicated by a dotted line in Fig. 7b.
Moreover, because of partial reflection and transmission, the number of waves propagating in such a large system
grows significantly with time. In order to simulate the pressure signal, the paths and nodal arrival times of each wave
must be memorized, leading to an exponential growth in the need for memory capacity as the simulation advances.
206 B. Brunone et al. / Procedia Engineering 70 (2014) 201 – 208

Fig. 7. Novara supply system — pump shutting off: a) experimental dimensionless pressure signal, he ; b) relative wavelet transform (WT), c)
impulse response in the case all terminal connections are closed, and d) impulse response in the case all terminal connections are active

In order to reduce the time machine and consequently use the LM more efficiently, an extraction of the network
reached by pressure wave in 20 s — from the beginning of the maneuver — is included in the graph. Such a time
allows to analyze the network within approximately 10 km from the measurement section. The final phase of the LM
is reconstructing the pressure signal at the section immediately downstream the check valve, i.e., identifying which
waves have passed this section, calculating the exact moment of passage and introducing the attendant variations with
the appropriate amplitude. In all calculations, the pressure wave speed, a, is set constant and equal to 1000 m/s.
In Figs. 7c and 7d the impulse response function carried out by the LM is shown in the case of all the terminal
connections of the considered network are closed and active, respectively. In both cases, it is evident that many
discontinuities of the experimental pressure signal pointed out by WT do not correspond to impulses in LM. One
of the main problems of LM is the fact that the maneuver is not instantaneous. To improve the efficiency of the
comparison between the numerical and experimental pressure signals, during the maneuver the convolution between
the impulse response function evaluated by LM and the derivate of the pressure signal is carried out. In Fig. 8, the
LM reconstruction of the pressure signal is shown, in the case of all the terminal connections are closed (dashed line)
and active (dotted line). Even if the actual characteristics of the maneuver are considered, the LM does not capture
correctly the singularities evidenced by the WT.

5. Conclusions and future developments

The inaccuracy of LM can be ascribed to various factors: (i) the pressure probe full scale is too large compared
to the maximum value of the pressure; (ii) the maneuver is really slow; (iii) there are several junctions very close to
the pumping station (see Fig. 3 and Table 1); and (iv) there is not a characteristic section close to the measurement
section useful to calculate the pressure wave speed. Because of factor (i), the accuracy of the pressure signal is not
as high as it could be; moreover, because of factor (ii), all pressure changes are not as sharp as they should be to
extract straightforwardly all information from the pressure signal. Due to the concurrent effect of (ii) and (iii), in LM
during the maneuver, there is a combined effect of the maneuver itself and the waves reflected by singularities very
close to the measurement section; and, finally, because of (iv), it is not possible to easily estimate the pressure wave
speed. Since the field test is inappropriate, LM is inefficient; thus, accordingly with Fig. 6, the transient test has to be
repeated. The maneuver can not be modified because it is the shutting off of an operating pump; the possibility is to
exclude all the connections closest to the pumping station from the network and/or add more measurement sections.
 B. Brunone et al. / Procedia Engineering 70 (2014) 201 – 208 207

30

25

20

pressure signal, H(m)

15

10

H
0 E
HN (inactive terminals)
H (active terminals)
N
−5
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20
time, t(s)

Fig. 8. Pump shutting off: experimental pressure signal, vs. the numerical ones, in the case all the terminal connections are closed (dashed line)
and active (dotted line)

Acknowledgements

This research has been supported by the Italian Ministry of Education, University and Research (MIUR) under
the Projects of Relevant National Interest “Advanced analysis tools for the management of water losses in urban
aqueducts”, “Tools and procedures for an advanced and sustainable management of water distribution systems” and
Fondazione Cassa Risparmio Perugia under the project “Hydraulic characterization of innovative pipe materials (no.
2013.0050.021)”.

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