Determining the location of buried plastic water pipes from measurements of ground surface vibration

‘Mapping the Underworld’ is a UK-based project, which aims to create a multi-sensor device that combines complementary technologies for remote buried utility service detection and location. One of the technologies to be incorporated in the device is low-frequency vibro-acoustics, and techniques for detecting buried infrastructure, in particular plastic water pipes, are being investigated. One of the proposed techniques involves excitation of the pipe at some known location with concurrent vibrational mapping of the ground surface in order to infer the location of the remainder of the pipe. In this paper, measurements made on a dedicated pipe rig are reported. Frequency response measurements relating vibrational velocity on the ground to the input excitation were acquired. Contour plots of the unwrapped phase revealed the location of the pipe to within 0.1–0.2 m. Magnitude contour plots revealed the excitation point and also the location of the pipe end. By examining the unwrapped phase gradients along a line above the pipe, it was possible to identify the wave-type within the pipe responsible for the ground surface vibration. Furthermore, changes in the ground surface phase speed computed using this method enabled the location of the end of the pipe to be confirmed.