The Effect of Heavy-Duty Vehicle Crossings on the State of Stress of Buried Pipelines

The aim of this article is to quantify the loads exerted by heavy-duty vehicles when crossing over buried pipeline. This problem arises in connection to the question pertaining to the use of protective sleeves (casings) applied to gas pipelines in regions with increased demands on pipeline operation safety. An experiment was conducted on a test pipe section made from L360NE pipeline steel equipped with strain gauges along the pipe perimeter, measuring strains in the axial and circumferential directions. Strain measurements were taken after back-filling the pipe trench, then during vehicle crossings over the empty pipe, and again after pressurizing the test pipe with air. Strain-based hoop stresses at the surface of the empty test pipe were found to exceed 30 MPa after back-filling the trench and increased to more than 40 MPa during the vehicle crossings. Similarly, axial stresses reached extremes of around 17 MPa in compression and 12 MPa in tension. Applying internal air pressure to the test pipe resulted in a reduced net effect on both the hoop and axial stresses.

An Accurate Leakage Localization Method for Water Supply Network Based on Deep Learning Network

In the water supply network, leakage of pipes will cause water loss and increase the risk of environmental pollution. For water supply systems, identifying the leak point can improve the efficiency of pipeline leak repair. Most existing leak location methods can only locate the leak point approximately to the node or pipe section of the pipe network, but cannot locate the specific location of the pipe section. This paper presents a framework for accurate location of water supply network leakage based on ResNet. The framework is to pinpoint leaks to specific locations along the pipeline. The leakage of two kinds of pipe networks is simulated. For a pipe network containing 40 pipes, the positioning accuracy of the pipe section is 0.94, and the MSE of the specific location of the leakage point is 0.000435. For the pipe network containing 117 pipes, the positioning accuracy of the pipe section is 0.91, and the MSE of the specific location of the leakage point is 0.0009177, and the leak location ability under different sensor arrangements is analyzed. Experiments verify the robustness and applicability of the framework.

Precise Inspection of Geometric Parameters for Polyvinyl Chloride Pipe Section Based on Computer Vision

The precise inspection of geometric parameters is crucial for quality control in the context of Industry 4.0. The current technique of precise inspection depends on the operation of professional personnel, and the measuring accuracy is restricted by the proficiency of operators. To solve the defects, this paper proposes a precise inspection framework for the geometric parameters of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) pipe section (G-PVC), using low-cost visual sensors and high-precision computer vision algorithms. Firstly, a robust imaging system was built to acquire images of a PVC pipe section under irregular illumination changes. Next, an engineering semantic model was established to calculate G-PVC like inner diameter, outer diameter, wall thickness, and roundness. After that, a region-of-interest (ROI) extraction algorithm was combined with an improved edge operator to obtain the coordinates of measured points on PVC end-face image in a stable and precise manner. Finally, our framework was proved highly precise and robust through experiments.

A Mathematical Model on Linkage Leakage in Sewage Pipes Laid in a Porous Ground Using Computation Fluid Dynamics.

This study describes the linkage leakage in sewage pipes through a porous media using computational fluid dynamics with the presence of one leak through fluid simulations using the Ansys fluent 17.2 commercial software based on standard k-ε model under steady-state condition. The pipe section is three-dimensional with a pipe length of 40 mm, a pipe diameter of 20 mm, and leak orifice diameter of 2 mm with a porous media of length 25 mm and width 30 mm. The interest of this study was to reduce the rate of sewage leakage in pipes laid underground by use computational fluid dynamics. The simulation results obtained shows that when the flow is subjected to an outlet pressure between 100000 Pa to 275000 Pa the sewage leaks at pressures of 99499 Pa to 278799.8 Pa indicating that increase of outlet pressures increases the pressure at the leak point and also an increase in the inlet velocity resulted into an increase of velocity at the leak point and no significant change in sewage flow rate with increased inlet velocities. Therefore, monitoring of the pressure and velocity fields along the pipeline is an extremely important tool to identify leaks since these fields are affected by perturbations both before the leak point and after the leak point.

Optimization of Pipe Network Simulation Algorithm for Tree-shaped Water Injection System in Large-scale Oilfield

As intelligence technology develops, there is a higher requirement for computing speed and accuracy of water injection system simulation. In this paper, aiming at the tree-shaped water injection pipe network system of large-scale oilfields, based on the energy equation for calculating the pressure drop [Formula: see text] of pipe section, a mathematical model of the pipeline unit and the node unit is established, and finally, a mathematical model of pipe network for the entire water injection system is established; then, the improved iterative algorithm is used to solve the simulation model of water injection system. In this way, we determine the boundary calculation conditions, take the water injection station as reference node, and use the maximum pressure of water injection well as the initial value of the reference node for calculation, which reduces the number of iterations in model calculation; by comparing the simulation results of different iteration steps, 0.01 is selected as the iteration step size due to its higher calculation accuracy; and the calculation process has also been optimized. The process of solving the characteristic matrix [Formula: see text] is combined with the process of calculating the pressure drop [Formula: see text] of pipe section, and placed outside the algorithm loop, thereby shortening the calculation time of a single cycle and reducing the calculation amount of the algorithm. The application cases show that the proposed optimization algorithm for water injection system pipe network simulation can be used as an effective method to improve the solution speed and calculation accuracy of the simulation algorithm of tree-shaped water injection system in large-scale oilfields.

The inverse strength problem for evaluation of bending stresses in pipelines during ground movements

Three variants of the engineering solution of inverse problems regarding the strength of pipeline sections bent as a result of ground movements or during an earthquake are proposed. The feature of this approach consists in calculation of stresses not by the forces acting on the pipe, but by the displacements or deflections. Therefore, full-scale measurements of the detected deviation of the pipe position from the planned pipeline route should be taken as initial data for estimating the values of additional bending stresses. The first problem considered is the assessment of the risk of pipeline malfunction upon sagging or bulging of the supports of aboveground pipelines. The problem is solved in the beam approximation. The pipeline is considered a statically indeterminate beam, one of the supports of which is forcibly moved to a given distance. For a once statically indeterminate beam, a system of four equations — two equilibrium equations and two integral equations for deflections — was solved numerically. The calculated values of three reactions of the supports and the angle of rotation of the pipe section on the first support are used to calculate bending moments, stresses and deflection lines. The problem for a thrice statically indeterminate beam under strain loading was also solved. The second goal is to model the stress-strain state of the pipeline proceeding from the tables of experimental data on the values of pipe deflections and their coordinates. The problem was also solved numerically, using the procedures of smoothing, linear interpolation and sequential differentiation. It is shown that taking into account the possible ambiguous solution of the inverse problem, we should not rely on the calculated values of transverse forces and distributed loads. It is enough to limit ourselves to the second coordinate derivative of the deflection. The third goal is to prevent accidents at the design stage. It is proposed to create a list of normalized deflection functions for modeling possible emergency situations for pipeline sections placed in difficult ground-geological conditions and seismically dangerous zones. The examples of such functions are given.

Improvement and Assessment of the Plastic Collapse Bending Moment Equations in Circumferentially Cracked Pipe

The plastic collapse bending moment in a pipe cross-section with a circumferential crack is defined in ASME B&PV Code Section XI, Appendix C using simplified equilibrium equations by approximating the pipe mean radius Rm and the neutral axis angle β. In previous papers it was demonstrated by the authors that, for externally cracked pipes, those simplified equilibrium equations are not conservative and hence improved equations were developed and proposed which account for the cracked pipe ligament mean radius Rmc. In this paper, it is demonstrated that the accuracy of the collapse bending moment equation can be refined by taking into account the neutral axis position Yna of the cracked pipe section. This leads to exact collapse bending moment equations without any approximation on the pipe mean radius Rm nor on the neutral axis angle β. In this framework, it is shown that, for externally cracked pipes, the Appendix C equations could lead to more than 20% less conservative collapse bending moment than with the exact equations. An extended finite element method analysis completes this study to assess the relevance of the model used to determine the plastic collapse bending moment.

Crimping Power Modes with Thinning of the Deformable Element of the Steel Pipe

Adapter parts are common in hydraulic pipelines. They can connect pipes of different cross-sections. The article discusses the crimping of pipes. Its peculiarity is that the pipe section to be crimped undergoes thinning, which is ensured by the gap between the tools. This process was studied to determine the deformation forces and the influence of various parameters of the operation on its value.

Burst Failure Analysis of a HFW Pipe for Nature Gas Pipeline

The burst failure of a high frequency welded (HFW) pipe used for nature gas pipeline in an oilfield was analyzed systematically by macro analysis, physical and chemical property test, scanning electron microscope (SEM), etc., and the limit internal pressure of the pipeline under operation condition was predicted based on finite element method (FEM). The results showed that the chemical composition and mechanical properties of the pipe meet the requirements of relevant standards. The failure results showed that the dent damage of the straight pipe section was at 12 o'clock. In the service of the pipeline, the stress in the dent area exceeds the yield strength, which leads to the plastic deformation of the pipeline, resulting in necking and thinning, and the reduction of wall thickness further leads to the decrease of ultimate internal pressure, until the ultimate bearing capacity of the dent area is less than the internal pressure of pipeline operation, resulting in burst. It is suggested to strengthen the supervision of pipeline construction to avoid the pipeline dent damage. Meanwhile, the operation monitoring of the pipeline with dent damage should be strengthened, and timely repair or depressurization operation should be carried out if necessary.