Prestressed Concrete Cylinder Pipe Condition Assessment—What Works, What Doesn't, What's Next

Abstract

This paper presents a summary of the research performed for Water Research Foundation on the evaluation of condition assessment and remaining service life prediction/failure margin analysis technologies in use for prestressed concrete cylinder pipe (PCCP). The project involved a literature review, an industry survey, and a workshop. The literature review integrated the published experiences with all condition assessment and monitoring technologies. The industry survey included design, distribution, and compilation of responses to a questionnaire sent to water utilities, technology stakeholders, and consultants to document their experiences. The workshop provided a venue to discuss utility experiences and utility needs. The results of the literature review, industry survey, and workshop were used to develop a Best Practices Guidance Manual that identifies a method of prioritizing pipelines for condition assessment; condition assessment, monitoring, and failure margin analysis technologies that are in existence or near deployment; benefits and limitations of existing technologies; gaps in knowledge; what works and what does not work in management of a pipeline; and further research and field work needed to improve condition assessment and pipeline management.

PCCP risk management—State of the art and strategy optimization

“…Therefore, at this time, it is not possible to account for potential inaccuracies of wire‐break estimates based on electromagnetic inspection in failure‐margin analysis. This point is supported by Zarghamee et al, who have concluded that (1) the actual number of broken wires can differ significantly from the number predicted by nondestructive testing and (2) failure‐margin analyses should be considered preliminary until verification of the predicted number of broken wires is performed on selected pipes through external inspection (Zarghamee et al, 2012; Nardini et al, 2011).…”

“…Since its introduction, electromagnetic inspection has been used on numerous pipelines nationwide with mixed results (Williams et al, 2012; Bambei et al, 2005; Galleher et al, 2005; Galleher et al, 2000). Application of electromagnetic inspection to pipelines that do not have shorting straps beneath the wire, are composed of lined‐cylinder‐type PCCP, or are under pressurized flow (in‐service) has also been attempted (Williams et al, 2012; Zarghamee et al, 2012; Mergelas et al, 2006). On the basis of data from numerous sources, it is apparent that electromagnetic inspection can identify PCCP with broken wires with variable reliability and accuracy.…”

“…Unfortunately, incomplete data and/or selective reporting of inspection results published to date have made it difficult to evaluate the merit of this inspection technique. In a recent publication, it was concluded that “The predicted number of broken wires is expected to be within about 10 wires for LCP [lined‐cylinder pipe] or ECP [embedded‐cylinder pipe] with shorting straps away from the joints” (Zarghamee et al, 2012). At this time, however, there do not appear to be sufficient published statistics to validate such an all‐inclusive statement.…”

Pipeline Asset Management using a GIS Solution

“…Identifying individual pipelines or sections of pipelines at highest priority for advanced condition assessment, rehabilitation, and/or monitoring requires ranking sections of the system based on their criticality. Criticality can be determined based on the pipe risk of failure and constraints within the system (Zarghamee et al 2012). This paper focuses on the use of available pipeline data and condition assessment results to calculate the risk of pipe failure and prioritize pipeline repairs.…”

Fracture and Delamination Assessment of Prestressed Composite Concrete for Use with Pipe Jacking Method

“…And two types of PCCP, Embedded Cylinder Pipe and Lined Cylinder Pipe, have been applied since the first application in US in the 1940s [1,2]. Research has been carried out on the operational condition assessment of PCCP with statistical analysis [1,[3][4][5], experiments [6,7], and numerical modeling [8,9]. These studies have shown that PCCP have low levels of damage and low distress rate as compared to conventional concrete pipes.…”