SEALING LARGE-DIAMETER CAST-IRON PIPE JOINTS UNDER LIVE CONDITIONS
Utilities in the U.S. operate over 75,000 km (47,000 miles) of old cast-iron pipes for gas distribution. The bell-and-spigot joints that connect pipe sections together tend to leak as these pipes age. Current repair practices are costly and highly disruptive. The objective of this program is to design, test and commercialize a robotic system capable of sealing multiple cast-iron bell and spigot joints from a single pipe entry point. The proposed system will perform repairs while the pipe remains in service by traveling through the pipe, cleaning each joint surface, and installing a stainless-steel sleeve lined with an epoxy-impregnated felt across the joint. This approach will save considerable time and labor, avoid traffic disruption, and eliminate any requirement to interrupt service to customers (which would result in enormous expense to utilities). Technical challenges include: (1) repair sleeves must compensate for diametric variation and eccentricity of cast-iron pipes; (2) the assembly must travel long distances through pipes containing debris; (3) the pipe wall must be effectively cleaned in the immediate area of the joint to assure good bonding of the sleeve; and (4) an innovative bolt-on entry fitting is required to conduct repair operations on live mains. The development effort is divided into eleven tasks. Task 1--Program Management and Task 2--were completed in prior quarters while Task 3--Design and Fabricate Ratcheting Stainless-Steel Repair Sleeves has progressed to installing prototype sleeves in cast iron test pipe segments. Efforts in this quarter continued to focus on Tasks 4--8, with significant progress made in each. Task 4 (Design, Fabricate and Test Patch Setting Robotic Train) progressed to the design of the control electronics and pneumatic system to inflate the bladder robotic patch setting module. Task 5 (Design & Fabricate Pipe-Wall Cleaning Robot Train with Pan/Zoom/Tilt Camera) continued with additional in-pipe testing required to optimize the design of the robot elements and surface control electronics and software. Task 6 (Design & Build Surface Control and Monitoring System) has been completed with the control and computer display functions being operated through LabView. Task 7 (Design & Fabricate Large Diameter Live Access System) progressed to completing the detailed design of the entry fitting for 12-inch diameter cast iron pipe. The fitting is now being placed into manufacture. Task 8--System Integration and Laboratory Validation continued developing the robot module inter-connects and development of a master LabView-based system display and control software.
- Research Organization:
- Gas Technology Institute (US)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- (US)
- DOE Contract Number:
- FC26-02NT41316
- OSTI ID:
- 825559
- Resource Relation:
- Other Information: PBD: 1 Apr 2004
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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SEALING LARGE-DIAMETER CAST-IRON PIPE JOINTS UNDER LIVE CONDITIONS
SEALING LARGE-DIAMETER CAST-IRON PIPE JOINTS UNDER LIVE CONDITIONS