Strategic Placement of Acoustic Sensors in Drinking Water Distribution Systems

<p dir="ltr">Leakage in drinking water systems is a major issue that water companies strive to mitigate. Numerous acoustic sensors are deployed across suspected areas to accurately locate leaks. These acoustic sensors are typically installed at every possible access point (such as valves or fire hydrants) in the network without optimisation. This research, for the first time, presents an acoustic model-based simulation method to identify more effective locations for a limited number of acoustic sensors in complex drinking water distribution systems. COMSOL software is used to analyse acoustic wave propagation in the system, similar to the way EPANET is used to inform hydraulic simulation and pressure sensor placement. The proposed method shows highly promising results for optimising acoustic sensor placement based on the available budget and desired network coverage.</p><p dir="ltr">This paper was presented at the 21st Computing and Control in the Water Industry Conference (CCWI 2025) at the University of Sheffield (1st - 3rd September 2025).</p>