Systems and methods for modeling, analyzing, detecting, and monitoring fluid networks

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11002630-B2
Application number	US-201716327161-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 18, 2017
Priority date	Aug 31, 2016
Publication date	May 11, 2021
Grant date	May 11, 2021

Abstract

Systems and methods are provided for determining sensor or infrastructure placement in a fluid network, for determining an anomaly of interest in the fluid network, and for optimally determining sensor coverage in a fluid network, which are based on a model of the fluid network represented by a directed graph.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method of determining an anomaly of interest in a fluid network, the method comprising:
providing one or more sensors disposed at one or more selected locations in the fluid network, wherein the sensors are configured to collect data from the fluid network at the respective locations;
collecting, via the one or more sensors, data from the fluid network at the one or more locations;
receiving, via a processor, the data from the sensors; and
analyzing, via the processor, the data based on a model of the fluid network, wherein the model is represented as a directed graph associated with the processor, the directed graph comprises a plurality of directionally connected nodes where one or more imaginary nodes are added between two adjacent nodes.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the anomaly is related to contamination or infrastructure fault in the fluid network.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein analyzing the data further comprises computing the level of contamination at one or more nodes in a detection area in the fluid network.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein computing the level of contamination at the plurality of nodes further comprises determining an absorption probability matrix Q.

5. The method of claim 3 wherein analyzing the data further comprises localizing one or more potential contamination sources based on the computed level of contamination at the nodes.

6. The method of claim 3 , wherein the detection area is determined based on one or more localizability criteria including for a given node, evaluating whether there are at least two sensors disposed downstream of the given node which have the respective paths not sharing any d-separator with respect to the given node.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the model is a harmonic model, and a contamination concentration level in the fluid network is represented as a harmonic function.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein the contamination concentration level includes a chlorine level.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the directed graph further comprises a second imaginary node connected to the one or more imaginary nodes.

Assignees

• 3M Innovative Properties Co

Inventors

• Schumacher Jennifer F
• Taghaeeyan Saber
• Jesme Ronald D
• Bonifas Andrew P
• Amell Nicholas G
• Hable Brock A
• Golnari Golshan

Classifications

• G06Q50/06 Primary

  Energy or water supply · CPC title

• G01N33/0047

  Organic compounds · CPC title

• G01M3/28

  for pipes, cables or tubes; for pipe joints or seals; for valves {; for welds} · CPC title

• G06Q50/26

  Government or public services (business processes related to the transportation industry G06Q50/40) · CPC title

• G01M3/22

  for pipes, cables or tubes; for pipe joints or seals; for valves; {for welds; for containers, e.g. radiators} · CPC title