DFOS was deployed on a new 140 m (460 ft) segment of 6-inch Earthquake Resistant Ductile Iron Pipe (ERDIP) in a location within the Hayward Fault Zone in Berkeley, California which had previously experienced water leakage and multiple main break events. DAS monitoring of the fiber optic-instrumented pipeline was performed during pipe commissioning and effectively quantified characteristic acoustic signals during filling, pressurization, and flushing. The influence of fiber-environment coupling conditions on DAS event detection sensitivity was evaluated. Four fiber optic cable installation configurations were evaluated: 1) tight buffered fiber optic cable attached to the pipe; 2) loose tube fiber optic cable attached to the pipe; 3) tight buffered fiber optic cable laid in the trench; 4) loose tube fiber optic cable laid in the trench. These findings will support further efforts to evaluate the performance of various DAS deployment configurations for pipe water leakage detection, and ultimately transform the state of practice for resilient pipeline network monitoring. The project is a result of the close collaboration between UC Berkeley’s Center for Smart Infrastructure (CSI) and East Bay Municipal Utility District (EBMUD)!
