Calgary, Canada, is no stranger to water infrastructure issues, having recently experienced a mainline break and subsequent water use restrictions. Preventing such failures that impact water delivery is the goal of a new Advanced Pipeline Research and Innovation Laboratory (APRIL) at the University of Calgary.

Researchers posit that up to 25% of potable water leaks from distribution systems, incurring increased energy costs for water treatment. APRIL is intended to help engineer advancements in pipeline leak detection and related water infrastructure, including finding ways to reduce energy lost in water treatment when such incidents occur.

The APRIL facility. Source: Ron Hugo, University of Calgary

The facility is equipped to enable researchers to recreate a natural pipeline failure in order to document results that reflect realistic conditions and phenomena.

“We will take a section of pipe and we will intentionally damage it,” said Dr. Ron Hugo, director of the university’s Pipeline Engineering Centre in the Schulich School of Engineering. “We put it into a flow facility that we have where we can change either the flow rate or the pressure and so, at a fixed flow rate, we’ll increase the pressure to the point where the pipe fails.”