Experimental study between leakage and pressure for different pipe size and material in water conveyance pipeline

Water loss from water transmission pipelines is on average 20 to 30% of their transferred water, and this amount reaches over 50% in older systems, especially in systems with inefficient maintenance. In this study, the relationship between leakage and pressure for different diameters and pipe types was investigated. Experiments were performed at Imam Ali reservoir in Ilam city in three ST pipes of 80, 150 and 200 mm and two PE pipes with diameters of 110 and 160 mm. Leakage was performed artificially in the relevant pipes with different hole diameters. The minimum and maximum diameters of the leak holes were 8 and 60 mm, respectively. The minimum and maximum pressures in the pipes were 4 to 12 bar, respectively. The coefficients n and k, which are related to the leakage power formula, were calculated for each of the holes in the ST and PE pipes.Variations of n coefficients against hole diameters for pipes are between 0.351 to 0.754. Changes in the coefficients k versus hole diameter for pipes showed that this coefficient increases with increasing hole diameter. In a ST pipe with a hole diameter of 20 mm and a pressure of 12 bar, the maximum leakage rate of 8.75 liters per second was obtained.