Acoustic Surveys

Acoustics, which is the technology behind acoustic surveys, can be used to locate pipe blockages and structural defects, and determine pipe length and serviceability. As well as structural defects, operational conditions such as fats, oils and grease (FOG) and tree root intrusion can be detected using acoustic surveys.

The currently supported format is SewerBatt™. The SewerBatt™ inspection system was initially developed at the University of Bradford and is the flagship of Acoustic Sensing Technology (UK).

An Acoustic Survey object contains information related to a single acoustic survey of a pipe. Each Acoustic Survey object may be associated with a single pipe, and each pipe may have many surveys linked to it (for example at different dates and times).

Acoustic Surveys can be:

• imported via the Open Data Import Centre.
• imported from SewerBatt data (XML files).
• created as scheduled tasks. Please refer to the Digitising Network Objects and Scheduled Tasks topics for further information.
• entered manually in the Acoustic Survey Grid View in the Survey Grid . Please refer to the Digitising Network Objects topic for further information.

By default, acoustic surveys are displayed on the GeoPlan as a thick grey line displayed behind the associated pipe. If the full geometry of the acoustic survey is not known the following display rules apply:

• If the associated pipe is found, the survey is drawn as a line (polyline) on the pipe, with the same length as the pipe.
• If the associated pipe is not found:
  • For surveys created using the New Object tool of the GeoPlan Tools toolbar - the survey is drawn as an horizontal line at the position where the cursor was clicked on the GeoPlan with a default length of 10 m.
  • For surveys created from the Survey Grid or as scheduled tasks, and when no pipe is specified- the survey is not drawn and cannot be found on the GeoPlan.
  • For surveys created from the Survey Grid or as scheduled tasks, and when an existing pipe (which has geometry) is specified - the survey is drawn as a line (polyline) on the pipe, with the same length as the pipe.

Once the survey data has been imported or created, validation may be carried out to ensure that survey data is appropriate before it is used to update the network.

Checks are made that the Acoustic Survey associated pipe exists.

The user can easily identify which survey data is associated with a pipe using the Navigate | To Related Objects () toolbar option from the pipe tabbed Property Sheet or Object Properties Window, which opens the relevant survey Property Sheet.

Alternatively launch the Object Browser Window to displays object relationships and manage related objects.