Study of Parameter Configuration on an Embedded System Used for Acoustic Leak Localization in Metallic Pipelines

Abstract

The subject of pipeline monitoring for a timely response in the case of leakage has raised intense interest and numerous leak localization methods have been presented in the literature. However, most approaches focus more on the performance of the methods themselves and not on their implementation on a typical embedded system and the way that the main system parameters affect its operation. The present paper aims to contribute to this field. Specifically, an acoustic leak localization method, developed in our previous research, is implemented in C++ on the Raspberry Pi 4B platform. The main system parameters are defined and certain trade-offs between them are examined. These trade-offs concern three basic metrics: the leak localization accuracy, the execution time of the algorithm, and the memory consumption, which rely on the values of the system parameters. Based on the targeted application, the importance of each of the aforementioned metrics can vary. For this reason, an evaluation function, equipped with user-defined weighting coefficients corresponding to the three metrics, is constructed in this paper. With the help of this function, a given parameter combination can be evaluated and the decision about its utilization in a certain application can be made.