How to use it
The pipeline shows the steady flow and pressure for your settings, and it updates as you change them. Drag the red handle to move the leak, add valves, branches and stations, and click any marker to edit it. Press Run simulation to watch the leak event: the pressure wave travels both ways from the leak, each end sensor sees it arrive, the detector raises an alarm and estimates where the leak is.
What it calculates
The steady pressure profile along a liquid pipeline, from the Darcy–Weisbach friction loss, the static head from the elevation change, and local losses from valves. A leak removes flow where it sits, and branches withdraw flow where you place them. For the leak event, the size of the pressure drop uses the Joukowsky relation, and the wave moves at the wave speed you set.
What it does not do
It is not a real-time transient model. It does not solve unsteady flow, so it does not model line pack, pumps starting or stopping, slack line, gas or multiphase flow. The wave speed is an input, not derived from the pipe wall and fluid, and the wave does not weaken as it travels. Use it to see how the quantities relate, not to design or certify a system.
How the leak position is found
The detector times the pressure drop at the inlet and the outlet. With the wave speed a, the position is x = (L + a·(tin − tout)) / 2. If the detector assumes the wrong wave speed, the position shifts. Use the wave-speed error setting to see by how much.
Keyboard
Focus a marker and use the arrow keys to move it (hold Shift for bigger steps). Delete removes a valve, branch or station. Space plays or pauses the event, and R restarts it.
Read this first
This is a simplified illustration. Real detection performance depends on the pipeline, the fluid, the instruments and how the system is configured, and must be confirmed by testing. Results are simulation outputs and are not a substitute for field commissioning, transient validation or approved design calculations.
