The assessment of a mobile geo-electrical measurement system: a study on the validity and contributing factors to quantify leakage in sewer systems

The main application of the mobile geo-electrical measurement is the detection of the presence and determining the location of leakage in sewer systems. To do so, this method relies on the increase in the measured electrical current between an electrode inside and an electrode outside the sewer system. To use this technique for the quantification of leakages further assumptions on the measured current are required. In this study, a model to simulate the geo-electrical measurement system is developed. Laboratory experiments are conducted to investigate the influence and contribution of the model components on the measured current and the validity of the assumptions. The experimental results demonstrate that multiple components significantly contribute to the measured current apart from the leakage in the pipe. As a consequence, the properties of the leakage in the pipe are likely to be significantly under- or overestimated in most measuring systems currently applied in practice.