Copper Pipeline Research Articles

Low-Temperature Rapid Polymerization of Intrinsic Conducting PAD/OC Hydrogels with a Self-Adhesive and Sensitive Sensor for Outdoor Damage Repair and Detection.

Intrinsic conducting hydrogels fabricated in situ at low temperatures with self-adhesive properties and excellent flexibility hold significant promise for energy applications and outdoor damage repair. However, challenges such as low polymerization rate and self adhesion, insufficient ionic conductivity, inflexibility, and poor stability under extreme cold conditions have hindered their utilization as high-performance sensors. In this study, we designed an intrinsic conducting hydrogel (PADOC) composed of acrylic acid, acryloyloxyethyltrimethylammonium chloride, N,N'-methylenebis(2-propenamide), self-fabricated oxidized curdlan (OC), and a water/glycerol binary solvent. The novel hydrogel exhibited rapid gelation (30 s) at 0 °C facilitated by the promotion of OC, without the need for external energy input. Our findings from FT-IR, NMR, XPS, XRD, EPR spectra, MS, and DSC analyses revealed that OC underwent selective oxidation via the evolved Fenton reaction at 30 °C, serving as bioaccelerators for PAD polymerization. Due to OC's reductive structure and increased solubility, the reaction activation energy of the PAD polymerization reaction significantly reduced from 103.2 to 54.4 kJ/mol. PADOC ionic hydrogels demonstrated an electrical conductivity of 1.00 S/m, 0.7% low hysteresis, 39.6 kPa self-adhesive strength, and 923% strain-at-break and kept even at -20 °C owing to dense hydrogen and ionic bonds between PAD and OC chains. Furthermore, PADOC ionic hydrogels exhibited antifatigue properties for 10 cycles (0-100%) due to electrostatic interactions and hydrogen bonding. Remarkably, using a self-designed device, the rapid polymerization of PADOC effectively repaired copper pipeline leakage under 86 kPa pressure and detected 1% strain variation as a strain sensor. This study opens a new avenue for the rapid gelation of self-adhesive and flexible intrinsic conducting hydrogels with robust sensor performance.

Appraisement of groundwater quality status within Enugu, Nigeria, using physicochemical evaluation and water quality indices

Enugu state is notorious for potable water scarcity which forces residents to depend on polluted water sources. In this study, an appraisement of the quality status of groundwater from some areas within Enugu was conducted. Physicochemical characteristics of groundwater sampled from 15 boreholes that supply domestic water to Aninri, Awgu, Ezeagu, Udi and Oji River Areas of Enugu, Nigeria, were determined. A total of 45 water samples were obtained across both rainy and dry seasons. Standard methods were used to determine the physicochemical parameters and trace metals. The physicochemical results showed values within the WHO safe limits, except sulphate (1670 ± 21.5 mg L−1) in Mpu water samples, and high chloride levels in Ndeaboh and Mpu (18088 ± 29.4 and 1095 ± 23.9 mg L−1 for dry and rainy seasons, respectively). The pH values were predominantly slightly acidic, ranging from 5 to 8.2. Groundwater within Ukaete, Ndeaboh, Oduma and Amankpunato had very high levels of electrical conductivity (2897.80 ± 173.38, 31000 ± 45.9, 1672 ± 9.3 and 1222 ± 8.1) in the dry season, respectively; and 1665.06 ± 326.6, 5410 ± 2.4, 4860 ± 9.4, 1872 ± 19.3 in the rainy season, respectively. The higher chloride values observed, possibly due to a geogenic origin, could also be responsible for the higher values of the electrical conductivity. There were traces of copper and lead in the samples during the dry season; however, lead was not detected in most borehole water samples during the wet season. Fe was the only metal that recorded values above the WHO standard. Traces of copper in the samples may have resulted from corrosion in the copper pipelines, reservoirs or other metallic fittings used in the construction of the boreholes. The water quality index (WQI) of the borehole water examined was above 100 in all except Ogugu Awgu samples, indicating that borehole water was generally not potable and therefore unsuitable for domestic application or drinking. The observed results revealed that the groundwaters from the study area were contaminated with chloride and lead, causing the water parameters to be above standard limits. Lead at any concentration is deemed toxic according to USEPA. There is a need to treat borehole water supplies in the area before its application for domestic use.

Laser ultrasonic scanning for detection of damage in copper pipelines using blind compressive sensing and the adjacent area difference coefficient

Due to its good thermal conductivity and corrosion resistance, copper has become a common material for transmission pipelines. It is necessary to detect the early signs of damage in copper pipelines effectively and quickly. Laser ultrasound scanning is a non-contact and non-destructive damage identification method, which can realize high-precision, non-contact detection. At the same time, with the progress of internet technology, traditional damage testing has begun to use advanced technologies such as the internet of things and cloud computing to promote an upgrade of the testing industry from an offline industry to an online industry. However, obtaining a large amount of wavefield vibration data is time consuming. In this paper, we present a laser ultrasonic scanning cloud platform damage detection method for copper pipelines based on alternating learning blind compressive sensing (BCS) and the adjacent area difference coefficient (AADC); this approach can improve real-time performance and detection accuracy. First, the damage detection method is introduced in detail. BCS is used to compress the laser scanning signal at the data acquisition terminal, and then transmitted to a data processing cloud platform for reconstruction. Copper pipeline damage imaging is realized by taking the AADC value of each detection point as the pixel value. The simulated detection data of the copper pipeline are then obtained through a finite element model, and the weighted vectors of the AADC are determined by a genetic algorithm. Finally, experimental data are used to verify the effectiveness of this method, and the experimental results are analyzed and discussed. The AADC and other distance damage imaging methods are compared. The results demonstrate that this method can compress the wavefield data to 13% of the original data, and the detection of crack damage is realized.

CNN-LSTM network-based damage detection approach for copper pipeline using laser ultrasonic scanning

Copper pipeline is a commonly used industrial transmission pipeline. Nondestructive testing of copper pipeline early damage is very important. Laser scanning has attracted extensive attention because it can realize the visualization of guided wave propagation and non-contact on-line detection. However, the damage points detection in laser scanning imaging method rely on the difference between the damage points signals and surrounding normal points signals. This limits the applicability of laser scanning and may lead to inaccurate in large-area detection. Facing with such challenges, a damage detection method based on CNN-LSTM network is proposed for laser ultrasonic guided wave scanning detection in this paper, which can detect each scanning point signal without relying on the surrounding detection points signals. Firstly, the proposed data conversion algorithm is used to preprocess the laser scanning signals. Next, CNN-LSTM network is used to train the damage detection model. Four 1D Conv channels with different convolution kernel sizes and depths are designed in Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) module. The module can extract the signal time domain features. Then the features are input into the Long Short-Term Memory Network (LSTM) for feature extraction and classification. Finally, the CNN-LSTM is trained using the laser scanning detection data collected on the copper pipeline with crack and corrosion damages, and applied to detect the copper pipeline damage signal. At the same time, the state-of-the-art methods is compared with proposed method. The experimental results show that the detection accuracy of the method is 99.9%, 99.9%, 99.8% and 99.8% for copper pipeline 0.5 mm deep crack damage, penetrating crack damage, corrosion damage and inside crack damage, respectively. The damage location and size can be accurately detected by the proposed method.

Artificial neural network for predication of zinc consumption rate of cathodic protection of copper in saline water: A short communication

The rate of zinc consumption (anode) for cathodic protection of copper pipeline in saline water is forecasted using artificial neural network (ANN). Zinc consumption rate (input dependent variable) is estimated as a function of temperature, flow rate, time and NaCl concentration (output independent variables). One hundred ANNs are created using STATISTIC 10 software based on the Intelligent Problem Solver tool. Only ten high performance networks are retained. Three types of ANNs are constructed. Linear Model (LM), Multi-Layer Perceptrons (MLP), and Radial Basis Function (RBF). MLP 4:4-7-1:1 with four input variables and one output variable, and three layers of 4, 7, and 1 unit, respectively is the high performance network with a 0.9946 correlation coefficient and 0.0071 absolute errors. The predicted results are in a good agreement with experimental one. It is found that the rate of zinc consumption increases with increasing of all independent variables. Sensitivity analysis showed that the time is the most sensitive variables, while salt concentration, flow rate, and the temperature had the lower effect, respectively.

A Conceptual Design Framework based on TRIZ Scientific Effects and Patent Mining

Conceptual design represents a critical initial design stage that involves both technical and creative thinking to develop and derive concept solutions to meet design requirements. TRIZ Scientific Effects (TRIZSE) is one of the TRIZ tools that utilize a database on functional, transformation, parameterization of scientific effects to provide conceptual solutions to engineering and design problems. Although TRIZSE has been introduced to help engineers solve design problems in the conceptual design phase, the current TRIZSE database presents general scientific concept solutions with a few examples of solutions from patents which are very abstract and not updated since its introduction. This research work explores the derivation of a novel framework that integrates TRIZ scientific effects to the current patent information (USPTO) using data mining techniques to develop a better design support tool to assist engineers in deriving innovative design concept solutions. This novel framework will provide better, updated, relevant and specific examples of conceptual design ideas from patents to engineers. The research used Python as the base programming platform to develop a conceptual design software prototype based on this new framework where both the TRIZSE Database and Patents Database (USPTO) are searched and processed in order to build a Doc2Vec similarity model. A case study on the corrosion of copper pipelines by seawater is presented to validate this novel framework and results of the novel TRIZSE Database and patents examples are presented and further discussed in this paper. The results of the case study indicated that the Doc2Vec model is able to perform its intended similarity queries. The patent examples from results of the case study warrant further consideration in conceptual design activities.

Simulation study on anti-corrosion performance of a ferroalloy flange

The corrosion problem of seawater pipeline is an important problem that ships need to face. Installing anticorrosive zinc block in seawater pipeline is a simple and practical anticorrosion means. In this paper, the anti-corrosion performance of a ferroalloy flange is simulated and analysed. The results show that, for the copper pipeline, both cathode current and anode current of the seawater pipeline using the copper - ferroalloy anticorrosive mode are significantly lower than those of the seawater pipeline using the copper - zinc alloy anticorrosive mode under the same external environment. This means that the anticorrosion performance of copper - ferroalloy model is obviously better than that of copper - zinc alloy model.

Inverse Wave Reflectometry Method for Hydraulic Transient-Based Pipeline Condition Assessment

Established water distribution systems (WDSs) typically consist of pipelines buried underground that are aging and deteriorating, and as such, it is difficult to assess their condition for maintenance and replacement. This paper proposes a novel hydraulic transient-based inverse wave reflectometry method (IWRM) for condition assessment of water pipelines in WDSs. Instead of using the method of characteristics (MOC) for the transient modeling, a computationally high-efficiency wave reflectometry method (WRM) has been developed to simulate the transient response of a pipe system. Further efficiency improvement has been made by simplifying the friction term in the WRM. An IWRM has then been developed by combining the WRM with a differential evolution algorithm to calibrate the locations and magnitudes of the pipeline impedance changes (wall thickness changes and wave speed changes) caused by deterioration. The IWRM is able to concentrate on the major wave reflections caused by pipe impedance changes and minimize the effects from background noise and other interferences, such as background pressure fluctuations (i.e., those caused by pump operations, tank level fluctuations, and household water usage) and wave reflections by pipe fittings. The proposed method has a high efficiency due to its fast WRM simulation and its small number of optimization variables. Extensive numerical verifications have been conducted on reservoir-pipeline-valve systems with a uniform deteriorated pipe section, a nonuniform deteriorated section, and multiple deteriorated sections. The deteriorated sections in these case studies were all well detected even though the pressure signals were contaminated with strong noise. Experimental verification has also been conducted on a laboratory copper pipeline with one thinner-walled pipe section successfully identified.

Simulation CFD and experimental investigation of PVT water system under natural Malaysian weather conditions

PV power generation is a viable option to resist fossil fuels, which consume and harm the environment, but increasing the cell temperature of the photovoltaic device reduces its electrical performance. The photovoltaic thermal PVT system is a suitable technology to improve electrical performance and obtain useful heat, which improves the overall efficiency. To overcome the challenges, a new dual oscillating absorber copper pipeline flow that was designed based on the PVT water system, was developed and studied. ANSYS 19.2 was used to predict the outlet water temperature and surface temperature of PVT model based numerical simulations, were irradiation levels of 600, 800, and 1000 W/m2 with the mass flow rate at 2, 4, and 5 LPM and water temperature inlet 26°C. The experiment was conducted outdoors under Malaysian weather conditions at different value flow rates of 2–6 LPM for the present investigation. The CFD results were validated with the experimental results. Validation ensures good agreement between the numerical and experimental results. The results show that the maximum average thermal efficiency of photovoltaic thermal (PVT) system is 59.6%. The highest average value of electrical efficiency of PV panel and the PVT water system was found to be 10.86% and 11.71%, respectively at a mass flow rate 6 LPM. The PVT electrical, thermal efficiency and the output power increased with the increase in mass flow. The thermal efficiency increased with the increase in the mass flow rate, solar irradiation level and reducing the difference between water inlet and outlet temperature. While, the cell temperature decrease with the increase in the mass flow rate. The maximum electrical performance achieved using the PVT system 11.71%.

Condition assessment of pipelines using a Bi-directional layer-peeling method and a dual-sensor configuration

Over the past two and a half decades, hydraulic transients have been proposed and also used to assess the condition of pipeline systems through detection of anomalies such as extended pipe wall corrosion and blockages. This paper proposes a new bi-directional layer-peeling method which is capable of reconstructing estimates of the spatial distribution of the pipe wall thickness section by section both in the upstream and the downstream direction from the measurement site. Effects of branched pipes connected to the main pipe are also incorporated into the developed approach. A dual-sensor (a pair of closely placed pressure transducers at one measurement site), instead of a single pressure transducer, is used to both measure the pressure traces and to separate the directional hydraulic transient waves. The layer-peeling method originally developed in the acoustics field has been adapted and further developed to allow bi-directional reconstruction for pressurized water pipes. Numerical verifications are performed on a pipeline with three deteriorated sections and a uniform branch. The deteriorated sections in the pipeline are successfully detected using the pressure traces simulated by the method of characteristics (MOC). Experimental verification is also conducted on a laboratory copper pipeline, and two sections of pipe with thinner wall thicknesses, located on both sides of the dual-sensor, are successfully detected.

Hydraulic Calculation of Copper Pipelines for Heating and Internal Gas Supply Systems

Copper pipelines are widely used while designing modern heating systems, water and gas supply of residential buildings and these pipelines have a number of advantages in comparison with steel and plastic pipelines. The main reason for limited use of copper pipes is their cost which is practically twice as much as cost of steel pipes, and four times higher than the coat of polypropylene pipes. Modern design standards in Belarus do not contain specific requirements for calculation of copper pipelines. Therefore hydraulic calculation of heating systems has been considered and analyzed on the basis of norms of Russian Federation. The drawback of all theoretical calculations presented in Russian standards is their abstraction from general laws of fluid and gas mechanics. For this reason theoretical foundations of hydraulic calculations for all pipelines have been considered and expressions have been given for determination of pressure loss due to friction and in local loss. Main flow regimes have been considered on the basis of I. Nikuradze’s experiments in order to determine linear losses and dependences for determination of friction coefficient in laminar, transient and turbulent modes have been presented in the paper. Values of local loss coefficient for main pipeline elements are given for calculation of pressure loss and the paper also shows determination of value z with due account of equipment capacity. An analysis of nomograms presented in Russian norms and researches has been carried out; shortcomings have been revealed and the ways directed on their perfection have been found. Nomograms for calculation of specific pressure losses in heating systems and internal gas supply have been constructed on the basis of natural gas and propane with due account of dependences presented in the paper. Nomograms for finding equivalent length of a single local loss have been constructed for calculation of internal gas supply systems.

Effect of crude oil on the rate of diffusion-controlled corrosion in pipelines under turbulent flow conditions

Abstract The present work aimed to investigate the effect of crude oil on the rate of diffusion-controlled corrosion of copper pipeline in acidified dichromate under fully developed flow. To achieve this goal, various parameters were investigated, such as crude oil percentage volume (%), flow physical properties, active height of the copper pipeline, flow velocity, and the presence of Triton X-100. The results of our study revealed that the rate of copper pipeline inner-wall corrosion increases with the increase of crude oil percentage volume and flow velocity. On the other hand, the active height of copper pipeline has no significant effect on the corrosion rate. In addition, the presence of crude oil and Triton has a synergistic effect on retarding the corrosion rate. The inhibition efficiency of Triton X-100 varied from 4.4% to 41.3% depending on its concentration and flow velocity. Polarization curves indicated that the corrosion kinetics is diffusion controlled in acidified dichromate and in the presence of crude oil and Triton X-100. However, the corrosion kinetics is mixed controlled in the presence of acidified dichromate and crude oil. Correlation of the present mass transfer data using dimensionless analysis led to the following dimensionless equation: Sh=0.58Re 0.5 Sc 0.33, with the conditions 677<Sc<1490 and 3699<Re<30,874. The present work highlighted the practical importance of the present mass transfer correlation in the design and protection against corrosion of pipelines due to crude oil transportation.

Diversity of ribosomal 16S DNA- and RNA-based bacterial community in an office building drinking water system.

Next-generation sequencing of 16S ribosomal RNA genes (rDNA) and ribosomal RNA (rRNA) was used to characterize water and biofilm microbiome collected from a drinking water distribution system of an office building after its first year of operation. The total bacterial community (rDNA) and active bacterial members (rRNA) sequencing databases were generated by Illumina MiSeq PE250 platform. As estimated by Chao1 index, species richness in cold water system was lower (180-260) in biofilms (Sphingomonas spp., Methylobacterium spp., Limnohabitans spp., Rhizobiales order) than in waters (250-580), (also Methylotenera spp.) (P=0·005, n=20). Similarly species richness (Chao1) was slightly higher (210-580) in rDNA libraries compared to rRNA libraries (150-400; P=0·054, n=24). Active Mycobacterium spp. was found in cross-linked polyethylene (PEX), but not in corresponding copper pipeline biofilm. Nonpathogenic Legionella spp. was found in rDNA libraries but not in rRNA libraries. Microbial communities differed between water and biofilms, between cold and hot water systems, locations in the building and between water rRNA and rDNA libraries, as shown by clear clusters in principal component analysis (PcoA). By using the rRNA method, we found that not all bacterial community members were active (e.g. Legionella spp.), whereas other members showed increased activity in some locations; for example, Pseudomonas spp. in hot water circulations' biofilm and order Rhizobiales and Limnohabitans spp. in stagnated locations' water and biofilm. rRNA-based methods may be better than rDNA-based methods for evaluating human health implications as rRNA methods can be used to describe the active bacterial fraction. This study indicates that copper as a pipeline material might have an adverse impact on the occurrence of Mycobacterium spp. The activity of Legionella spp. maybe questionable when detected solely by using DNA-based methods.

Применение медных трубопроводов для внутридомового газоснабжения

Применение медных трубопроводов для внутридомового газоснабжения

스프링클러 동배관의 공식부식 발생원인

Copper metal is widely used in tubes installed in sprinkler water services because of its excellent corrosion resistance. Copper corrosion is considered to be insignificant in water system and the incident of copper pipeline failure is relatively low. However, pitting corrosion is a major problem with all copper tubes. In this study, leaked sprinkler copper tubes were collected from three different locations and examined on the causes of pitting corrosion of copper tubes in sprinkler water plumbing systems. Electrochemical tests such as potentiodynamic polarization, as well as surface and chemical analyses were performed. Results show that pitting corrosion of copper tubes were found as Type I pitting that the carbon film formed on the copper tubes have a harmful effects, causing the pinhole failure in the pipe and resulting in leakage of water. The contermeasures on Type I pitting corrosion of copper tubes were proposed.

Corrosion of Copper Pipeline Systems under Different Flow Conditions

In the current study, the material corrosion behavior and degradation of a closed-loop copper piping systems were investigated taking temperature and flow parameters into consideration. To simulate the practical environment conditions, two identical copper closed-loop piping systems were constructed with three types of joints. Both systems were filled with 3% sodium chloride solution and run for about eleven months period. They were heated to a temperature of 80°C for eight hours a day and for 5 days a week. Outside that heating period, systems were maintained at room temperature (23± 2°C). Within such a heating interval, the contained solution for one system was kept in stagnation condition while it was flowing at input velocity of 0.27 m/s for the other. For both systems, the corrosion was then assessed and quantified using different evaluation techniques: Potentiodynamic test, Pourbaix diagrams, light microscope and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The experimental results confirmed a diverse significant influence of solution flowing conditions on the damage of copper pipes.

Cathodic protection system of copper–zinc–saline water in presence of bacteria

Rate of zinc consumption during the cathodic protection of copper pipeline which carries saline water was measured by weight loss technique in the absence and presence of bacteria. Variables studied were solution flow rate, temperature, time and NaCl concentration. It was found that within the present range of variables; the rate of zinc consumption increases with the increase of all operating conditions. The presence of bacteria increases the zinc consumption. Fourth order multi-term model and one-term model were suggested to represent the consumption data. Nonlinear regression analysis was used to estimate the coefficients of these models, while statistical analysis was used to determine the effect of each coefficient. Both models were representing the data successfully.

Personal communications using an UEAN: concept, example and measurements

This work describes the functionality of the "User Environment Area Network" (UEAN) and explores some issues related to its practical implementation. An UEAN is a network that connects the electronic devices that belong to a person, in spite of their physical location. The "Functional Convergence" (FC) of personal electronic devices allows the implementation of virtual personal electronic devices, that are implemented by grouping sources, sinks, storage, processors or gateways that belong to the UEAN. We explore the feasibility to use water copper pipelines as the backbone to establish a UEAN based on the interconnection of several Wireless Personal Area Networks (WPAN) operating in the different rooms of a house. The copper pipeline represents a good candidate to interconnect the multiple WPAN because of its high bandwidth and strong shielding to external electromagnetic noise. Some measurements in the 2.4 GHz frequency band are presented. The converging trends observed in telecommunications technology and markets, make us believe that it is important to study and model a network of personal devices in terms of an UEAN.

Cathodic Protection of Copper Pipes Carrying Saline Water in the Presence of Aerobic Bacteria

Rates of zinc consumption during cathodic protection of a copper pipeline carrying saline water were measured by the loss in weight technique. The study of sacrificial anode cathodic protection of short copper tube using zinc strip extended axially in the pipe revealed that : (i) The increase of zinc consumption with time of exposure (1-3 h's) at different flow rates (turbulent flow) (300-600 l/hr) while the temperature , solution concentration and the pH were fixed at 20ºC, 3.5%wt NaCl, and pH=8 respectively in absence and presence of bacteria.(ii)Increase of zinc consumption with flow rates (300-600 l/hr) at different temperatures (10-40ºC) while solution concentration and time of exposure were fixed at 3.5 %wt NaCl and 3hr's respectively, in absence and presence of bacteria. (iii) Increase of zinc consumption with flow rates (300-600l/hr) at different solution concentrations (1-3.5 %wt NaCl) while the time of exposure and temperature were fixed at 3h's and 30ºC respectively in absence and presence of bacteria. Generally the Zn consumption during cathodic protection ranges from (2.424- 26.741 g/m2) and (5.352-27.296g/m2) in absence and presence of bacteria respectively.

Rate of zinc consumption during sacrificial cathodic protection of pipelines carrying saline water

Rates of zinc consumption during cathodic protection of a copper pipeline carrying saline water were measured by the loss in weight technique. Variables studied were solution flow rate, temperature and NaCl concentration. It was found that within the present range of conditions the rate of zinc consumption increases with increasing solution flow rate, temperature and NaCl concentration. Results were explained on the basis that cathodic protection in saline water is controlled by the rate of diffusion of dissolved oxygen towards the walls of the copper tube. Implication of the present results for protecting heat exchangers used in the desalination industry and coolers employing seawater as a coolant was highlighted. Under the present range of conditions the rate of Zn dissolution during cathodic protection of copper ranged from 9.96×10 −3 to 20.9×10 −3 g/ cm 2. s.