Abstract： Since the loss of large amounts water through leak pipework system is both environmentally and economically damaging, accurate location of buried leakage pipes is a subject of waterworks and city planning construct in the worldwide major urban areas. For a buried pipe, it is a typically coupling system including three phases, i.e., soil, pipe and fluid. As the surrounding soil treated as elastic medium, characteristics of sound propagation are studied analytically for a fluid-filled pipe surrounding by elastic medium. Pipe coupling equations for n=0 axisymmetric wave motion are derived, and complex wavenumber solutions are obtained by numerical method for both s=1 wave and s=2 wave, which correspond to a predominantly fluid-borne wave and a compressional wave in the shell, respectively. The results show that the wavenumber of fluid-borne wave will decrease while nearly have no effect on compressional wave due to the existing of surrounding soil. Since the coupling between the pipe and the soil will result in energy radiation, larger attenuation arises for both s=1 wave and s=2 wave. It will give some help for leak detection of buried pipes.
2012, Vol. 31 
