Non-metal Pipe Research Articles

Annular expansion for enhanced orientation and mechanical properties of extruded amorphous PPESK/PES pipes

AbstractWith the discovery of deeper oil fields, conventional metal pumping pipes have been proven to be ineffective in meeting the requirements for deep well oil production due to their high weights and limited corrosion resistance. Therefore, in this study, a composite of Poly(phthalazinone ether sulfone ketone) (PPESK) and polyethersulfone (PES) was used to fabricate nonmetal pipes. To enhance the mechanical properties of the PPESK/PES pipes, a self‐designed annular expansion pipe extruder head was used. The circumferential burst stress and axial tensile strength of the PPESK/PES pipes subjected to 30° expansion were 73.0% and 48.9% higher than those of the unexpanded sample, respectively. When annular expansion was integrated into the extrusion of PPESK/PES/carbon fiber pipes, the axial tensile strength and circumferential burst stress were 45.9% and 88.8% higher than those of the unexpanded sample, respectively. Results of polarized infrared testing and metallographic microscopic examinations demonstrated that molecular chains present a regular orientation at a certain angle to the extrusion direction, under the effect of annular expansion extrusion. These findings highlight the efficiency of annular expansion in promoting the large‐scale production of pipes.

Assessment of hydraulic efficiency and duration of residual service life of metal water supply pipelines

Substantiation of the necessity to develop projects of reconstruction of non-wood metal water supply pipelines, which have been in operation for a long time, including in the far north regions. Development of methodology of estimation of hydraulic efficiency and duration of residual service life of metal pipes depending on the thickness of the actual layer of deposits on their inner walls. Methods. It is proposed to estimate the period of residual use of steel and gray cast iron pipes by the value of the coefficient of efficiency of their operation. Outcomes. The study allows us to determine the values of the coefficient of efficiency of the use of the pipeline, assembled from steel and gray cast iron pipes, characterizing the residual duration and hydraulic efficiency of its operation. We obtained a formula for determining the coefficient of hydraulic efficiency of metal water supply pipelines, which is the ratio of values of actual characteristics of the hydraulic potential of non-metal pipes at the moment of evaluation to the values of these characteristics for steel and gray cast iron pipes. Practical Relevance. The developed methodology is recommended for use in determining the possibility of extending the period of further use of worn metal water supply pipelines, as well as for predicting the duration of their residual operating life.

Gene expression programming based mathematical modeling for leak detection of water distribution networks

Globally, the loss of potable water through buried and service water distribution networks (WDNs) is one of the persistent challenges confronted by water utilities. Most of the WDNs inspection methods are ad-hoc and typically provide the current status of the pipes. Despite the significant research efforts, a reliable prediction method of the water leak of buried and service water distribution pipes is rare. To overcome this challenge, gene expression programming (GEP) models – that uses extracted features of acoustic signals collected from noise loggers attached to pipeline valves at the chamber – are developed and validated in the current study. To develop these models, extensive fieldwork hitherto unavailable was undertaken in this study to record the flow-induced acoustic signal of WDNs. The GEP models are developed using a step function – that returns a binary output – which is leveraged to exhibit the proposed detection and prediction methods using the acoustic signal collected from the buried WDNs. The models only consider the highly correlated features with the leakage. The models are found to be able to predict leakages on metal and nonmetal pipes with about 95% accuracy. These models were developed to reduce the time and cost of deployment of equipment for leakage detection of pipes. The proposed method presented in this study highlights the prospect and advantage of using the GEP in infrastructural management given the amazing capability of the machine intelligence technique to recognize multi-dimensional circumstances with ease, high prediction accuracy, and potential for unceasing improvement.

Data-driven application of MEMS-based accelerometers for leak detection in water distribution networks

Water scarcity is a global concern; 68 countries are facing extremely-high to medium-high risk of water stress. In this era of crisis, where water conservation is an absolute necessity, the water distribution networks (WDNs) globally are experiencing significant leaks. These leaks cause tremendous financial loss and unacceptable environmental hazards, thus further aggravating the water scarcity situation. To minimize such damage, the adoption of advanced technologies and methodologies for leak detection in the WDNs is absolutely necessary. In this regard, we have investigated the application of cost-effective MEMS-based accelerometers. Experiments were conducted on real networks (metal and non-metal pipes), over the course of ten months, and the acquired acceleration signals were analyzed using a monitoring algorithm. Monitoring index efficiencies and standard deviations for every leak and no-leak case was extracted. Two individual [KNN and Decision Tree] and two ensembles [Random Forest and Adaboost (Decision Tree)] based machine learning models were developed for the accurate classification of the leak and no-leak cases using extracted features; and separate models were developed for metal and non-metal pipes. Random Forest outperformed the other machine learning models and the overall accuracy reached 100% for metal pipes and 94.93% for non-metal pipes. The machine learning models were further validated using unseen/unlabeled cases and were highly effective in detecting leaks. This study demonstrated the applicability of MEMS-based accelerometers for leak detection and established real network-based machine learning models thereby contributing to the research scarcity in this important area.

Experimental Research on the Pipe Grouting Quality Based on Antenna Array Radar

Experimental research on the pipe grouting quality is carried out by detecting the concrete test piece with high-frequency antenna array radar. First, the principle of detecting the pipe grouting quality with ground-penetrating radar is introduced, and then the pipe grouting situation is researched systematically and completely with three methods, including the oscillogram of a single wave, grey-scale image (2D imaging) and slice image (3D imaging) of antenna array radar, and the research results are verified with an indoor test model. The results show that: Pipe can be positioned precisely with antenna array ground-penetrating radar; for failure of judgment of the grouting fullness of metal pipes and the grouting fullness situation of non-metal pipes, the pipe grouting quality can be identified with the oscillogram of a single wave, grey-scale image (2D) and slice image (3D) respectively; Radar detection 3D image can present the position of a pipe in the structure intuitively and accurately, and, the pipe material and the pipe grouting fullness can be judged by comparing the radar detection 3D image and the 3D slice image.

Analytical solution for temperature field of nonmetal cooling pipe embedded in mass concrete

Non-metal cooling water pipe is widely used in temperature control of mass concrete structures. However, the previous calculation method for water pipe cooling contained a Bessel function, which makes the calculation very cumbersome. In this paper, the theoretical solution and simplification of cooling of non-metal pipes, compared with the cooling of metal pipes, are studied. It is found that the form of the theoretical solution obtained by the separation variable method can be simplified to an exponential function form. A new formula is presented herein for the theoretical solution of the temperature field in pipe cooling. For non-dimensional parameters, the numerical values of these parameters for the formula are given, which are convenient for direct calculation.

Effects of antenna-target polarization and target-medium dielectric contrast on GPR signal from non-metal pipes using FDTD simulation

Ground penetrating radar (GPR) is widely used especially in subsurface pipes investigation and detection. The general practice is that the parallel antenna-target polarization is used for metal pipe GPR imaging and normal antenna-target polarization for non-metal pipe imaging. However, such practice does not always produce optimized results. The main reason is that the dielectric contrast in a non-metal pipes GPR imaging play an important roles in generating a good GPR signal. The research intends to highlight these issues by incorporating a finite-difference time domain (FDTD) simulation for several cases. The important observation is that antenna-target polarization as well as the dielectric contrast are two important criteria in determining a good GPR signal for non-metal pipes imaging.

Effect of Cooling by Water Flowing in Nonmetal Pipes Embedded in Mass Concrete

Although roller compacted concrete was developed in recent years, artificial pipe cooling still is used widely to control the temperature of mass concrete in dam construction. There is a tendency to replace the metal pipes with nonmetal pipes, but there is not an appropriate method to compute the effect of cooling by nonmetal pipes. This problem is studied in this paper. Four methods are given to compute the effect of cooling, one formula is given to compute the radius of pipe, one formula is given to compute the horizontal spacing between pipes, and one formula is given to compute the time required for two different kinds of pipes to get the same cooling effect. All these methods and formulas are very convenient to use. The radius, the spacing, the time required to get a predetermined temperature in mass concrete and the economy of the artificial cooling by nonmetal pipes relative to the metal pipes may be determined by these formulas.