Commissariat a L'energie Atomique

Patrick Burghoffer

Michel Pourprix

Daniel Getto

Jean Charuau

Marc Merelli

Raymond Prigent

Patrick Poussier

The invention relates to a method for detecting and/or quantifying water leaks in a water pipe, and to a device for realizing said method. The method of the invention comprises measuring the water flow rate in the pipe in at least two different locations, i.e., one downstream and one upstream relative to the suspected leak, the water flow rate being measured by injecting a tracing agent that modifies the water conductivity instantaneously at an upstream location and a downstream location relative to the suspected leak location, continuously measuring the water conductivity downstream from said locations and, from the conductivity values, calculating the water flow rates upstream and downstream relative to the suspected leak location in the pipe. The method of the invention can be used for quantifying a leak flow rate that can even be a very small one.

Method and device for detecting and/or quantifying water leaks

An apparatus of the aerosol sampler type with cascade impaction and uniform deposition comprising a conical air inlet fixed to a tight, hollow, cylindrical chamber of revolution constituted by the superimposing of several stages in the form of hollow cylinders of revolution traversed by the air flow from the conical inlet and each having a circular plate perforated with holes located on concentric circles coaxial to the plate and having an identical diameter progressively decreasing in each stage, as well as a collection disk located downstream of the perforated plate and whose diameter is smaller than the internal diameter of the impacter chamber, incorporating a pump for ensuring the vertical downward circulation of the air and driving gears for the relative rotation of each perforated plate with respect to the corresponding collection disk, wherein in each stage the axis of rotation of the disk passes through the disk and is offset relative to the axis of the circular perforated plate.

Aerosol sampler with cascade impaction and uniform deposition

Process for the detection of atmospheric contamination by alpha particle aerosols eliminating the background noise due to radon daughter nuclei, of the type consisting of collecting, by circulation of the atmospheric air, the alpha particles to be detected on a filter placed in front of a detection and counting system, wherein there is discrimination between the alpha particles present in the atmosphere coming from a polluting source and which it is wished to detect and count and the alpha particles constituting the background noise and which are normally present in the atmosphere, on the basis of their different grain sizes. The invention also relates to a portable detector for performing the aforementioned process. Application to monitoring the ambient air of laboratories, etc.

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Lognes, France

Patrick Burghoffer