Pipe Cleaning Research Articles

Increasing the Efficiency of Diagnostics of Gas Pipelines Based on Preliminary Abrasive Cleaning

The need for preliminary abrasive cleaning of gas pipelines to increase the efficiency of in-pipe diagnostics by magnetic longitudinal magnetization flaw detectors is evaluated. The method of abrasive cleaning of pipes and a tool that implements the method is presented. Results from pilot tests under conditions typical of Saratovorgdiagnostika company are presented.

Technology of Ribbed Pipe Cleaning at Operation Site

The problems arising during the use of ribbed pipes at the Angarsk Petrochemical Complex and the process of formation of deposits and their effect on the technology of products manufacture are studied.

Rock-Breaking Properties of Multi-Nozzle Bits for Tree-Type Drilling in Underground Coal Mines

Tree-type drilling is a new technique for drilling radial tree-type boreholes in coal seams in underground mines using water jets to break the coal. The aim is to drain gas from the coal seams in larger quantities and from larger areas than can be done by conventional gas drainage using single boreholes. The self-propelled drill bit is the most important component for this technique. The bit generates a self-propelling force to move forward, break coal, and form a borehole. This paper investigates the relationships between the physical parameters of the forward nozzles in the bit and the diameter and shape of the borehole drilled. The effect of different physical parameters on the rock-breaking efficiency is studied by conducting drilling experiments. The results show that the size, orientation and number of the nozzles significantly affect the rock-breaking efficiency of the bit. To obtain a better rock-breaking efficiency under the experimental conditions used for this paper, the axial angle for forward nozzles should be 15°, the radial angle 90°, and nozzles should be arranged 2.1 mm from the center of a 12 mm drill bit. The experimental results provide a reference for the design of multi-nozzle bits for many applications such as radial jet drilling (RJD) and bent pipe cleaning.

Development of Cleaning Device for In-pipe Robot Application

Pipelines are essential tools for transporting water, oils, gases and sewer from one place to another. Pipelines are used to interconnect networks from one station to another that involved various diameter sizes and fittings to compensate intended directions. There are many issues that influenced performance of the pipelines namely aging, corrosion, cracks and use to clog up with debris, or sediments after long use. There are number of methods available to clean the inside of the closed pipeline namely traditional method like boiling, picking, alcohol and salt and cleaning kits, or tools kits such as wire and plunger or large-gauge snake. However, all the methods can over-stress older pipeline and cause leaks that make even more extensive repair procedures needed to fix the problem. Chemical fluid for pipe cleaning is also not suitable to all types of pipeline because the chemical can erode the pipe wall. Currently, service robot is the best solution that purposely developed to facilitate humans being activities including cleaning, inspection for cracks or repairing damage in pipeline. This paper intends to report about the development of cleaning device for in-pipe robot application. The development covers both software and hardware of the device. Significant experiment has been designed to validate the function of the device. It is proof that the device has successfully clean the soft and moderate clog. The success of the cleaning device can be attached to the in-pipe robot and the outcome is expected to assist pipeline cleaning operations. Thus, enable the pipelines to transport efficiently with minimum cost of operation.

Comparative Study on New Methods of Tubing Cleaning

This paper expounds the concept and application of tubing flushing, and compares different methods of new tubing cleaning for the equipment and process technology, such as the electromagnetic induction heating oil pipe cleaning, far infrared preheating washing, high-pressure water jet flushing and high efficient heating oil pipe scouring, so the theoretical result can provide guidance for the work.

Clay-Free Invert Fluid in High-Temperature Well Provides Consistent Low ECD Profile

This article, written by Special Publications Editor Adam Wilson, contains highlights of paper SPE 166538, ’Case History: Clay-Free Invert Fluid in Norwegian High-Temperature Well Provides Consistent Low ECD Profile,’ by Mads Rodsjo, SPE, and Erik Akutsu, Det Norske Oljeselskap, and Steven Morris, SPE, and Renate Mikalsen, Halliburton, prepared for the 2013 SPE Offshore Europe Oil and Gas Conference and Exhibition, Aberdeen, 3-6 September. The paper has not been peer reviewed. Historically, invert-emulsion drilling fluids (IEFs) require organophilic clays to provide viscosity_and suspension characteristics. While effective, these_chemicals are prone to stratification in certain conditions, slow_chemical-reaction times, high pressure spikes, and high equivalent circulating densities (ECDs). This paper_describes the first application of clay-free IEFs in the Norwegian continental shelf (NCS), with an emphasis on an impressively low and consistent ECD contribution. Further, a treatment was developed to allow the IEFs to be used to drill into a section exhibiting temperatures greater than 160°C. Introduction IEFs have been used in the NCS for almost 50 years. These systems commonly use organophilic clays and lignites as their primary viscosifiying and filtration-control agents. IEFs containing these compounds have been found to exhibit a higher propensity for fluid stratification than IEFs that use polymers for viscosity and filtration control. Until recently, organophilic clays and lignites have been the primary means to provide viscosity and filtration control in IEFs. While these chemicals are effective, there are several inherent limitations, including high pressures spikes when applying force following a static period and stratification of the fluid. The latter can lead to settlement of weighting agents in a wellbore. In addition, organophilic-clay additives are known to react much slower than polymer-based additives, reducing their effectiveness to maintain fluid properties. This can lead to destabilization of the fluid such that stratification and high filtrate loss can occur, leading to instances of stuck pipe and poor hole cleaning and to wellcontrol concerns. Polymer-based viscosifiers generate suspension characteristics by seemingly unconventional and contradictory means; high gel strengths are generated extremely rapidly but are easily broken. Because of such behavior, they are often referred to as strong yet fragile gels. In addition, at low fluid densities, these systems are less likely to induce losses through decreased solids loading, which can often be attributed to clay and lignite concentration. Before new chemicals can be introduced into the Norwegian market, stringent environmental requirements must be met. The pre-existing viscosifying polymer used globally in clay-free systems is classified as “black” in Norway because of its inability to biodegrade, meaning it cannot be used. To address this, a polymer-based viscosifying agent has been developed to replace organophilic clay and serve as a much more environmentally acceptable substitute.

Ice fraction measurement of ice slurries through electromagnetic attenuation

Ice pigging is a process used by many industries for pipe cleaning and product recovery. Ice slurries, used to form an ice pig, are generated using an aqueous solution of water and a freezing point depressant, typically salt (NaCl) at 5% salinity. The ‘thickness’ of an ice slurry is key to the ice pig's performance, and this paper investigates a new non-invasive method of ice fraction measurement. Electromagnetic (EM) waves, with a frequency of 2.5 GHz, are absorbed rapidly by water molecules, but pass through ice with little drop in intensity, due to key differences in the materials' atomic structures. This phenomenon is exploited, and results show ice fraction can be approximated to within ±1.2% using a VNA spectrum analyser, then mathematical manipulation and analysis. This rivals the error in calorimetry, ±1.3%, which currently seen as the ‘gold standard’ in ice fraction measurement across the industry.

Study on the Automatic Spraying System of Dust Suppressant and Speed Adaptive Algorithms

An automatic spraying system of dust suppressant is proposed in this paper for active control of uneven spraying, secondary pollution in the process of pipe cleaning and inconvenient system maintenance at present. The multilayer structure hardware system including monitoring management, control layer and field directors is designed. These deficiencies are improved by the way of adopting speed adaptive PID control algorithm, the integrated design of spraying mechanism and automatic cleaning technology. The key technology and algorithm are validated experimentally. The results show that the dust suppression proposed can be saved from 20% to 30% compared with traditional spraying system. The environmental pollution and economic losses to the enterprise will also be reduced effectively.

Flushing Planner: A Tool for Planning and Optimization of Unidirectional Flushing

Unidirectional flushing is a technique for periodic cleaning of water supply pipes to remove deposits and may also be an important response to contamination of drinking water networks. For unidirectional flushing the defined flushing path is fed by clean water at an entrance point. The development of an efficient flushing strategy is not straight forward. The objective is to minimize the effort of operating staff. The flushing plan consists of a well- defined series of flushing actions in which the current flushing path is always connected to previously cleaned sections. The paper describes the software tool referred to as Flushing Planner.

Research into Cleaning and Suppression Equipment to Improve Reliability of Hydraulic System

Modern weapons are usually power-driven by hydraulic system, The reliability of hydraulic systems restricts the reliability of weapons. The research elaborated in this paper is focused on cleaning and suppression equipment, with the aim of implementing a thorough cleaning and maintaining of hydraulic system pipes and checking the pressure. Pipe cleaning and suppression is an essential step to guarantee the reliability of hydraulic system and the service life of hydraulic parts, thus improving the reliability of weapons.

Seawater intake system in Test Bed seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO) project

ABSTRACT The Test Bed for seawater reverse osmosis desalination plant having a capacity of 10 million imperial gallons per day, located in Gijang-Gun, Busan, South Korea, is under construction by Doosan Heavy Industries and Construction. Generally, beach well-type intake system furnishes a good seawater quality, but the amount of water which can be extracted from each well is limited by the geological formation surrounding the wells. In case of the Test Bed, unfortunately, beach well-type intake could not be adopted, therefore, in order to achieve a similar level of seawater quality, as being able to get by adopting the beach well intake, the Test Bed intake system is directly connected with a newly developed dissolved air flotation with ball filtration system. The Test Bed intake system consists of passive offshore screen, intake pipe, and air-burst cleaning system. In order to avoid possible clogging of the offshore screen by oceanic substances, compressed air-bursting system is installed onshore. In ad...

Methodology for sampling drinking water discolouration loose deposits at low velocities

The occurrence of discoloured water at the tap is one of the most frequent reasons for customers to complain. Water discolouration arises from the re-suspension of loose deposits (LD) that accumulate in drinking water pipes, due to velocity increase. Because of its typical brownish/reddish colour, discoloured water is traditionally perceived as a consequence of cast-iron pipe corrosion, even in networks devoid of cast-iron pipes. Current approaches for LD sampling imply the use of high flow velocities within the range of those used for pipe self-cleaning (0.40 m/s) and/or pipe cleaning (1.50 m/s). Although useful for quantitative identification of critical zones and diagnosis of LD accumulation, the application of such high-velocities as routine methodologies for LD sampling may be difficult to perform on the field and provide samples with materials other than discolouration causing LD. In this study, sampling velocities from 0.02 to 0.52 m/s yielded relatively large samples (up to 2 g dry weight), thus allowing for extensive qualitative LD analysis and testing. Sample representativeness was analysed through the characterisation of LD key-constituents total iron (Fet) and volatile solids (VS). Turbidity decay trends showed the flocculent behaviour of discolouration causing LD.

The Spiral Driven and Control Method Research of the Pipe Cleaning Robot

Developed a spiral walking drive system of a two-body and two-row and six-legged pipe cleaning robot. In the two parts of the body have two rows and six support legs which evenly distributed along the circumferential, and each leg can be stretched along the radial direction. Therefore, it can be moving in a variety of different diameter pipe. The two parts of the body are connected with the hollow flexible axis, it can be moving in the curved pipe. Though controlling the positive and negative or size of the supporting leg’s wheel angle, the robot can achieve forward or backward and continu-ously variable transmission.

Galvanic Production Waste Water Treatment with Electro/coagulation Sludge in Terms of Nickel and Copper Ions

A possibility of nickel ions and copper ions recovery from galvanic waste waters with electro-coagulation sludge that is formed in the process of electro/chemical cleaning of galvanic drainage pipes with the use of soluble aluminum anodes has been demonstrated. Nickel ions recovery from the galvanic waste water in case of the optimal proportion of the sludge has reached at least 55 %.

Influence of Geometric Parameters of the Hydrocyclone and Sand Concentration on the Water/Sand/Heavy-Oil Separation Process: Modeling and Simulation

In the oil exploitation, produced fluids are composed of oil, gas, water and sand (depending on the reservoir location). The presence of sand in flow oil leads to several industrial problems for example: erosion and accumulation in valves and pipeline. Thus, it is necessary to stop production for manual cleaning of equipments and pipes. These facts have attracted attention of academic and industrial areas, enabling the appearing of new technologies or improvement of the water/oil/sand separation process. One equipment that has been used to promote phase separation is the hydrocyclone due to high performance of separation and required low cost to installation and maintenance. In this sense, the purpose of this work is to study numerically the effect of geometric parameters (vortex finder diameter) of the hydrocyclone and sand concentration on the inlet fluid separation process. A numerical solution of the governing equations was obtained by the ANSYS CFX-11 commercial code. Results of the streamlines, pressure drop and separation efficiency on the hydrocyclone are presented and analyzed. It was observed that the particles concentration and geometry affect the separation efficiency of the hydrocyclone.

A Study on Estimation of Sediment Substance Amount in Pipe and Efficient Pipe Cleaning Plan for Water Distribution Network Management

A Study on Estimation of Sediment Substance Amount in Pipe and Efficient Pipe Cleaning Plan for Water Distribution Network Management

Comparison of collectors of airborne spray drift. Experiments in a wind tunnel and field measurements

In this study, the collecting efficiency of different samplers of airborne drift was compared both in wind tunnel and in field experiments. The aim was to select an appropriate sampler for collecting airborne spray drift under field conditions. The wind tunnel study examined three static samplers and one dynamic sampler. The dynamic sampler had the highest overall collecting efficiency. Among the static samplers, the pipe cleaner collector had the highest efficiency. These two samplers were selected for evaluation in the subsequent field study. Results from 29 individual field experiments showed that the pipe cleaner collector on average had a 10% lower collecting efficiency than the dynamic sampler. However, the deposits on the pipe cleaners generally were highest at the 0.5 m level, and for the dynamic sampler at the 1 m level. It was concluded from the wind tunnel part of the study that the amount of drift collected on the static collectors had a more strongly positive correlation with increasing wind speed compared with the dynamic sampler. In the field study, the difference in efficiency between the two types of collector was fairly small. As the difference in collecting efficiency between the different types of sampler was small, the dynamic sampler was selected for further measurements of airborne drift under field conditions owing to its more well-defined collecting area. This study of collecting efficiency of airborne spray drift of static and dynamic samplers under field conditions contributes to increasing knowledge in this field of research.

Fuzzy Control of Non-Cable Type Autonomous Dredging Robot for Municipal Drainage Pipe

In view of the problems existing in the cleaning of municipal drainage pipes with diameter of 300-600 mm, a new type of robot was developed to replace the manual to clean the sewers automatically. It was powered by the self-contained storage battery. To make the robot have a degree of operating autonomy, four photoelectrical encoders were used to detect the stepper motor overload, the wheel slippage and the robot’s blockage in real time; an inclinometer was used to detect the robot’s operating posture; an ultrasonic sensor to the thickness of the calcified layer deposited on the pipe wall. Regular fuzzy control was introduced in the motor overload ajustment. To improve the control performance and simplify the control complexity, a hierarchical fuzzy control algorithm was presented in the robot’s posture-load regulation. The engineering result verifies the effectiveness of the fuzzy controllers and the enhanced autonomous operating capability of the robot.

Oral Poster 6

OBJECTIVES: The purpose of the study was to test a home built, easily portable laparoscopic trainer with a realistic, mobile camera for resident training. We sought to compare outcomes after an instructor training session vs. an online self study instructional video. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A box trainer was built using a suitcase, spy camera with LED light source mounted in a metal tube, and a camera receiver with wireless connection to a small TV screen, for under $200. All materials including laparoscopic graspers and knot pushers fit inside the suitcase for transport. Residents were given five tasks to complete on their own including passing a pipe cleaner through hooks, placing washers on pegs, unwrapping an aluminum foil ball, tracing a maze, and extracorporeal knot tying. They were randomized to direct instruction on the use of the trainer (controls) vs. self study using a video posted on YouTube. Self reported timed results for each task were compared, stratified by level of training. They also completed a questionnaire on realistic feel, technical problems with box trainer, comfort with trainer, need for the trainer and surgical applicability of the trainer using a Likert-type scale (1 = strongly disagree, 5 = strongly agree). RESULTS: The apparatus is presented in figure 1. Eighteen residents were randomized to a 25 minute session with an instructor or to the video. There was no difference in outcomes in timed performance for each task between the two groups as presented in Table 1. There was a relationship between increasing PGY level and performance, suggesting validity of the tasks. Control and video groups reported no differences in technical problems with equipment (1.7 vs 2.7, P = 0.9),comfort with trainer (4.9 vs 4.8, P = 0.66), realistic simulation of surgical feel(4.6 vs 4.6, P = 1.0), applicability of tasks (4.9 vs 4.6, P = 0.13), and current opportunity for practice(2.3 vs 2.1, P = 0.61). CONCLUSION: A homemade, realistic laparoscopic simulator can be inexpensively built and used for resident training at home with self instruction with good results. This can favorably impact time available for practice of laparoscopic skills and demands on faculty and finances.

The Two Most Important Tools in Cleaning Large Diameter Sewers: A Hydraulic Model and a Long Hose

The Two Most Important Tools in Cleaning Large Diameter Sewers: A Hydraulic Model and a Long HoseThe maintenance and cleaning of large diameter sewer pipes is a project many sewer utilities know they need to undertake, but because it is challenging and costly it is often relegated to a lower priority in exchange for more manageable and pressing maintenance activities. Challenges to completing a successful cleaning program include: having a good understanding of the condition of the pipe,...Author(s)Geoffrey GrantEric OnderakChristopher PawlowskiBrandon VatterBarrett GrohJoe SchotthoeferSourceProceedings of the Water Environment FederationSubjectSession 46: Collection Systems 101: Back to the BasicsDocument typeConference PaperPublisherWater Environment FederationPrint publication date Jan, 2010ISSN1938-6478SICI1938-6478(20100101)2010:14L.2845;1-DOI10.2175/193864710798170784Volume / Issue2010 / 14Content sourceWEFTECFirst / last page(s)2845 - 2857Copyright2010Word count192