Session: 04-15-01: Congress-Wide Symposium on NDE & SHM – NDE and Prognostics in Structural Applications

Paper Number: 71384

Start Time: Tuesday, 10:45 AM

71384 - Smart Trc Pipe With Integrated Monitoring Capabilities 

The study aims to develop a smart self-sensory TRC pipe system with integrated monitoring system. The new smart sensory system should have the capability to early detect water leakage and water infiltration through cracked and damaged zones and further on to estimate its severity. The proposed smart-sensory system is integrated within the reinforcement system and thus can overcome some of the drawbacks of traditional sensory systems of pipeline system that are inherently separated from the structural system. The study aims to prove the feasibility of the smart pipe system by developing and designing the hybrid pipe from both sensory and structural points of view. Integration of the structural and sensory requirements should consider the production feasibility of the self-sensory pipe and face various aspects.

The current study focuses on the electrical mechanism of the new sensory system. Infiltration of water occurs at cracked and damaged zones. In such scenarios the hybrid carbon rovings are exposed to water which influences the electrical properties of the electrical circuit built up by the carbon rovings. It is demonstrated that a consistent and clear electrical reading is obtained if two adjacent carbon rovings are electrically linked due to infiltration of water. One end of each carbon roving is connected to one of the terminals of the AC power source and due to wetting, the electrical characterization is altered, and a pronounced and sensitive electrical reading is obtained. One of the advantages of the chosen sensing concept is that only one end of each roving is connected to the DAQ which simplifies the installation of the electrical connection. On the other hand, restricting the electrical terminals to one end of the rovings limits the sensing capacities to an integrative mode, and accordingly limits the system to identifying wetting events without the ability to identify the exact location of the event along the roving. It can be solved by segmentation of the monitoring system, which is particularly relevant to pipeline applications in which precast elements are placed head to tail, yielding a system that is segmented by nature. In such applications, the proposed sensing concept aims to detect the wetting and the severity of the infiltration but is not designated to pinpoint the exact location of the event within the segment. Furthermore, it will be demonstrated that since carbon rovings are an integrated part of the structural system, they continue to function also in scenarios of progressive failure mechanism, which is crucial in case of water pipe systems. Such a hybrid system that continues to function, structurally and sensory, can be corrected and fixed and it is not necessitated to replace the damaged segment.

Presenting Author: Gali Perry Technion - Israel Institute of Technology

Authors:

Gali Perry Technion - Israel Institute of Technology
Yiska Goldfeld Technion