United States Department of Transportation
i
Electromagnetic Strategies for Locatable Plastic Pipe
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2021-02-12
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[PDF-18.20 MB]
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Edition:Final Report
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Abstract:Unlocatable utilities are a significant source of accidents throughout the US and add significant costs to construction from repair of accidental damage to locating the utilities. One of the largest issues is the widespread use of plastic pipe for gas transmission. These materials are difficult to detect with traditional utility locating systems even when their location is approximately known. This research program will investigate two strategies for fabricating plastic pipe that is intrinsically responsive to electromagnetic interrogation from the surface. The first strategy is to incorporate micro-encapsulated magnetic nanoparticles that will exhibit a strong response to EM radiation from the surface. This approach has two significant advantages when compared to previous attempts. First, microcapsules will reduce some of the deleterious effects on mechanical properties that the inclusion of conductive particles can have. Second, the potential for self-healing of crack damage is introduced. The second strategy is to investigate the production of antennas that can be used with either active or passive RFID systems to provide both location and pipe data. The data will provide visibility into the earth without the need for excavation, thereby reducing cost and increasing safety by eliminating the possibility of accidental utility damage. Items such as utility type, depth, and pipe size information will be investigated. Including additional data about neighboring pipes will also be investigated to enable a distributed map of the utilities to be provided by a collection of pipes. Critically, this strategy is focused on fabricating pipe structures in such a way as to produce a continuous production line to ensure cost-effective, locatable, plastic pipe. This research is a collaborative effort between three faculty members and two universities (The University of Tulsa and Oklahoma State University).
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