Mission and Objectives
Mission
To develop the next generation of UWSS—Smart UWSS—that are better built, instrumented, operated and managed, and where leaks and potential system failures can be reliably diagnosed. To achieve our mission, we propose to: (i) conduct frontier research to establish the scientific and engineering fundamentals of wave transmission in UWSS; (ii) develop innovative and reliable diagnostic techniques; and (iii) develop advanced experimental methodologies and techniques to test, refine, and confirm and launch the new technology.
Goals
Our
overriding goal is to develop pioneering
methodologies
that will assist the design, operation, monitoring and diagnostic
repair of UWSS to maximize societal benefits through water, energy and
financial savings, and reductions in carbon emissions. The research
involves:
(i) advancing our understanding of complex flow processes at the pilot
scale to inform and guide the creation of new predictive and control
models;
(ii) developing algorithms and techniques to suppress noise-wave
interaction;
(iii) establishing techniques and technologies to reliably identify and
accurately locate system anomalies in a timely manner;
(iv) building a theoretical foundation for communication using acoustic
waves within a flowing pipe system; and
(v) identifying and developing test beds to explore, refine and prove
the new technologies.
The research builds on our extensive theoretical and practical
expertise in UWSS, including proven laboratory experimentation and
field experience. In particular, support in field testing has been
secured from the HK WSD and from HKUST.
Deliverables
To create a diagnostic platform built on the understanding of the propagation and reflection of low and high frequency wave transmission in pipeline systems and their associated boundaries; technologies for defect detection, device and pipe characterization, early diagnosis and warning; algorithms for processing wave signals in the for acoustic communication; comprehensive water pipe acoustic channel models with coupled communications and a world leading test bed to prove and showcase the novel predictive methods and technologies.