Abstract
The integrity of the drinking water infrastructure deteriorates with time. Monitoring the condition of the drinking water mains can enhance the remaining operational lifetime assessment of the network. In this research a method to translate ultrasonic signals to degradation levels from an inline inspection in a cement-based drinking water pipeline is proposed. The data was obtained from an inspection performed in a Dutch drinking main section. The data is processed in two major steps. Firstly, the parameters that provide the condition of the cement are extracted. Secondly, images of the degradation within the pipes of the inspected trajectory were generated. The main contributions in this paper are (i) the estimation of relative degradation levels of a cement-based pipeline based on the ultrasonic pulseecho technique and (ii) the upscaling of the processing method in an automated manner for visualization of the degraded condition. Lastly, a sensitivity study of the parameters relevant to the determination of the degraded depth has been performed. The speed of sound in cement is the most relevant parameter to consider. Estimating absolute degradation levels needs further study.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 110413 |
| Pages (from-to) | 1-9 |
| Number of pages | 9 |
| Journal | Engineering Structures |
| Volume | 210 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 27 Feb 2020 |
Keywords
- UT-Hybrid-D
- Cement-based pipeline
- Inline inspection
- Data processing
- Degradation
