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Main break failures and investigations

Las Vegas Valley Water District's use of PIPEMINDER-S resulted in a 50% reduction in the magnitude of transients.

Las Vegas Valley Water District (LVVWD) experienced three line breaks in close proximity and installed PIPEMINDER-S devices to understand why.

Data collected from PIPEMINDER-S sensors and analyzed in Syrinix's RADAR cloud platform revealed LVVWD was experiencing harmful transients, with ranges exceeding 300 psi: twice that of the PVC pipeline's maximum pressure rating of 150 psi. When this transient data was overlaid with utility SCADA system data, it was clear that the transient activity correlated with valve operation activity within the network.

The visibility of this information meant LVVWD could make changes to their valve operations. This calmed the network, mitigated the risk of further breaks, and prolonged the life of their main.

Graph showing how the pressure spiked from 13 psi up to 323 psi, then immediately dropped to a full vacuum.
Fig 1 shows how pressure spiked from 13 psi up to 323 psi, then immediately dropped to a full vacuum. This happened in just 0.047 seconds, and would be undetectable by a pressure logger with a lower sampling rate.

"Syrinix technology helped us understand why line breaks were occurring, enabling us to make changes on the line to ensure it didn’t keep happening.

High resolution monitoring gave us greater visibility, meaning we could confidently plan specific operational repairs focussed on root of the problem.

The costs of a burst compared to that of installing and purchasing the hardware meant Syrinix saved us money and time too."
Kevin Fisher, Director of Water Quality and Treatment, LVVWD

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