Leak Detection in Pipe Systems Using Transients: A Statistical and Methodological Review

Leaks in pipe systems result in significant economic losses, environmental hazards, and public health risks. Transient-based leak detection methods, which exploit the dynamics of pressure waves in response to system anomalies, have emerged as efficient techniques for identifying and characterizing leaks in pressurized pipelines. These methods offer dis-tinct advantages, including minimal data requirements, high sensitivity to low-pressure anomalies, and resilience to the ill-posed conditions often affecting steady-state models. This paper reviews transient-based leak detection, synthesizing findings from over 138 peer-reviewed publications spanning the past three decades. The review categorizes tran-sient-based methods into transient damping, transient reflection, system response, and inverse transient methods, analyzing the prevalence, evolution, and research rate of each category over time. By structuring the review around key aspects such as simulation do-main type, analysis approach, system response, solver strategies, adaptability to noise, viscoelasticity, and network complexity, this paper identifies significant trends and shifts in research focus. A comprehensive tabular dataset of 138 studies captures how research activity in various areas has accelerated, slowed, or reached stability, offering insights into the evolving priorities within the field. This review highlights areas for further develop-ment, particularly in addressing AI-enhanced applications, transient excitation and measurement sites design, noise resilience, comprehensive leak characterization, valida-tion approaches, and scalability for complex network applications, providing a resource to guide future research in transient-based leak detection.