Locating Distribution Leaks by Pressure-Transient Timing on a Network of Low-Cost Loggers: A Method for Plastic-Pipe Networks Where Acoustic Correlation Fails

SIMULATED, NOT MEASURED. A design for locating leaks in plastic water distribution networks by timing low-frequency pressure transients between permanently installed low-cost pressure loggers, with in-situ wave-speed calibration. Korteweg wave speed is 309.3 m/s in polyethylene against 1258.9 m/s in ductile iron, so 10 Hz loggers locate a leak in polyethylene with a standard error of 6.7 m at 250 m spacing. The detection floor at 250 m in a 200 mm polyethylene main with 0.01 bar logger noise is a 3.08 mm equivalent hole (9.46 m3/day). Covering 50 km of mains for a 5,000-person town needs 201 loggers at a $30 design-target unit cost ($6,030 total). All computations are reproducible from the deposited compute.py.