Page 326 - Water Loss Control

CHAPTER 17

Controlling Real Losses—

Speed and Quality

of Leak Repair

Reinhard Sturm
Julian Thornton

George Kunkel, P.E.

17.1 Introduction
The speed of leak repair comes into the overall four-component picture of reduction of
real losses as shown in Fig. 17.1.
We have discussed various methods of locating leaks in Chap. 16. It is very impor-
tant to rank leak repairs for severity of loss or danger to life or property and schedule
them to be repaired as soon as possible. The annual volume of real losses stemming
from reported and unreported leaks depends on the number of leaks, their magnitude,
the operating system pressure, and probably most importantly the total time the leak
was permitted to run. All leaks are pressure dependent—more pressure equals greater
leakage rates—and Chap. 18 discusses all aspects of pressure management used to
reduce leakage volumes.

17.2 Leak Runtime Reduction
The total run time of a leak is comprised of three elements (Chap. 10 discussed the com-
ponent analysis of real losses in more detail than provided in this chapter):
Awareness Time: This is the time needed for the operator to become aware that a
leak exists, a parameter strongly influenced by the presence or absence of an active
leakage control program.
Location Time: This is the time taken to pinpoint the location of the leak once the
operator is aware of its existence.

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