Research Article

LEVERAGING AI TO IDENTIFY SILT ACCUMULATION AND BLOCKAGE IN COLLECTION SYSTEMS

Volume: 30 Number: 3 December 19, 2025
TR EN

LEVERAGING AI TO IDENTIFY SILT ACCUMULATION AND BLOCKAGE IN COLLECTION SYSTEMS

Abstract

Solid waste accumulation in wastewater collection systems poses significant challenges, leading to blockages, reduced flow capacity, and an increased risk of Separate or Combined Sewer Overflows (SSO or CSO), threatening public safety through flooding and pathogen contamination. Proactive detection of such buildups is critical, yet current automated methods are limited to academic studies that rely solely on depth data, lacking velocity information essential for determining silt depth accurately. This study addresses this gap by training a Deep Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) on depth-velocity scatter plots generated from 1,482,000 simulations using the Storm Water Management Model (SWMM), producing 82,482 labeled plots of varying silt accumulation levels. The CNN achieved 99% accuracy (for solid content predictions with deviations of up to 10%) on test data and was further validated with three real-world experiments using 20 cm pipes, where blockages were predicted within 0 cm, 0.3 cm, and 1.5 cm of actual conditions. These findings demonstrate CNNs as an effective tool for identifying silt accumulation, offering a faster and more precise alternative to traditional methods, with the potential to enhance maintenance and reduce system failure risks. Further research is needed to optimize the model for broader real-world applications.

Keywords

Supporting Institution

Inonu University Scientific Research Projects (BAP)

Project Number

FBA-2023-3284

Ethical Statement

The author confirms that there are no known conflicts of interest or common interests with any organization or person.

Thanks

I sincerely thank the Inonu University Scientific Research Projects (BAP) unit for their valuable support of this study, which was funded under the BAP project code FBA-2023-3284.

References

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  5. Faris, N., Zayed, T., Aghdam, E., Fares, A., and Alshami, A. (2024). Real-Time sanitary sewer blockage detection system using IoT, Measurement, 226, 114146.
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  7. Goodfellow, I., Bengio, Y., and Courville, A. (2016). Deep learning. MIT Press.
  8. Guo, W., Soibelman, L., and Garrett Jr, J. H. (2009). Automated defect detection for sewer pipeline inspection and condition assessment, Automation in Construction, 18(5), 587-596.

Details

Primary Language

English

Subjects

Environmental Engineering (Other), Civil Engineering (Other)

Journal Section

Research Article

Early Pub Date

December 11, 2025

Publication Date

December 19, 2025

Submission Date

December 14, 2024

Acceptance Date

September 14, 2025

Published in Issue

Year 2025 Volume: 30 Number: 3

APA
Ercan, M. B. (2025). LEVERAGING AI TO IDENTIFY SILT ACCUMULATION AND BLOCKAGE IN COLLECTION SYSTEMS. Uludağ Üniversitesi Mühendislik Fakültesi Dergisi, 30(3), 997-1010. https://doi.org/10.17482/uumfd.1601353
AMA
1.Ercan MB. LEVERAGING AI TO IDENTIFY SILT ACCUMULATION AND BLOCKAGE IN COLLECTION SYSTEMS. UUJFE. 2025;30(3):997-1010. doi:10.17482/uumfd.1601353
Chicago
Ercan, Mehmet Bülent. 2025. “LEVERAGING AI TO IDENTIFY SILT ACCUMULATION AND BLOCKAGE IN COLLECTION SYSTEMS”. Uludağ Üniversitesi Mühendislik Fakültesi Dergisi 30 (3): 997-1010. https://doi.org/10.17482/uumfd.1601353.
EndNote
Ercan MB (December 1, 2025) LEVERAGING AI TO IDENTIFY SILT ACCUMULATION AND BLOCKAGE IN COLLECTION SYSTEMS. Uludağ Üniversitesi Mühendislik Fakültesi Dergisi 30 3 997–1010.
IEEE
[1]M. B. Ercan, “LEVERAGING AI TO IDENTIFY SILT ACCUMULATION AND BLOCKAGE IN COLLECTION SYSTEMS”, UUJFE, vol. 30, no. 3, pp. 997–1010, Dec. 2025, doi: 10.17482/uumfd.1601353.
ISNAD
Ercan, Mehmet Bülent. “LEVERAGING AI TO IDENTIFY SILT ACCUMULATION AND BLOCKAGE IN COLLECTION SYSTEMS”. Uludağ Üniversitesi Mühendislik Fakültesi Dergisi 30/3 (December 1, 2025): 997-1010. https://doi.org/10.17482/uumfd.1601353.
JAMA
1.Ercan MB. LEVERAGING AI TO IDENTIFY SILT ACCUMULATION AND BLOCKAGE IN COLLECTION SYSTEMS. UUJFE. 2025;30:997–1010.
MLA
Ercan, Mehmet Bülent. “LEVERAGING AI TO IDENTIFY SILT ACCUMULATION AND BLOCKAGE IN COLLECTION SYSTEMS”. Uludağ Üniversitesi Mühendislik Fakültesi Dergisi, vol. 30, no. 3, Dec. 2025, pp. 997-1010, doi:10.17482/uumfd.1601353.
Vancouver
1.Mehmet Bülent Ercan. LEVERAGING AI TO IDENTIFY SILT ACCUMULATION AND BLOCKAGE IN COLLECTION SYSTEMS. UUJFE. 2025 Dec. 1;30(3):997-1010. doi:10.17482/uumfd.1601353

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