Research progress on temperature field leakage detection of earth-rock dams and new exploration in leakage point detection

ABSTRACT

The use of temperature field to detect leakage in earth-rock dams has a low cost and high efficiency, which is crucial to the safety of dams. This paper briefly introduces the principle of temperature field leak detection, reviews the research results of temperature leak detection, and categorises the research on the detection of leakage through the temperature field of earth-rock dam into three levels: 1) technical research based on temperature field detection; 2) study on the theoretical model of temperature detection; 3) research on numerical calculations of multi-field coupling such as temperature field and seepage field. The main achievements and characteristics of various research levels are reviewed, revealing the development trends of the field of temperature field leakage detection in earth-rock dams. Consequently, UAVs mounted with infrared thermal imaging leak detection technology are integrated, and the technical scheme for patrol leak detection is noted. Finally, future research directions for the temperature field detection of earth-rock dam leakage are explored for the timely and accurate detection of the location of leakage channels and to establish an intuitive and effective judgement and identification method for dam leakage.

KEYWORDS:

• Temperature field
• earth-rock dams
• infrared thermal imaging
• leakage identification

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Authors’ contribution

All authors whose names appear on the submission made substantial contributions. Literature research, paper writing, and chart drawing were conducted by Po Li, and the manuscript was reviewed under the guidance of Lei Tang. Shenghang Zhang and Pan Ming revised and presented suggestive comments on previous versions of the manuscript. Yulei Wang and Hui Tian arranged the format of the paper.

Additional information

Funding

This work is supported by the water conservancy technology demonstration project in China (Grant SF-202309), and the Special Fund Project for Basic Research Business Expenses of Central Public Welfare Research Institutes (Grant Y422009). The authors would like to thank all the reviewers who participated in the review, as well as MJEditor (www.mjeditor.com) for providing English editing services during the preparation of this manuscript.