The present disclosure relates generally to the repair of pipes and more particularly to methods of reinforcing existing host pipes against internal and external loads.
Over time or because of a particular event or condition (e.g., seismic activity, exposure to excessive or uneven loads or moments, exposure to micro-organisms, poor compaction, crown corrosion, corrosive soil, etc.), the structural integrity or capacity of force mains, other pipes and other structures may diminish. For example, such items may crack, corrode, deteriorate and the like. Different methods of repairing or otherwise strengthening damaged pipes and other items are well-known.
In one aspect of the present invention, a method of reinforcing a pipe having a pipe wall generally comprises spraying a curable flowable material along the pipe wall and curing the curable flowable material to form in-place a layer of sprayed-in-place reinforcement along the pipe wall. A fiber-laden fabric is positioned along the pipe wall and curable polymer impregnated in the fiber-laden fabric is cured to form in-place a layer of fabric reinforcement along the pipe wall. Following completion of said steps of spraying and positioning, the layer of sprayed-in-place reinforcement and layer of fabric reinforcement are superposed with each other.
In another aspect of the present invention, a reinforced pipe system generally comprises an existing host pipe having a pipe wall and a layer of sprayed-in-place reinforcement in the interior of the host pipe extending along the pipe wall. A further layer of fabric reinforcement in the interior of the host pipe extends along the pipe wall. The layer of sprayed-in-place reinforcement is free of fabric. The layer of fiber reinforcement includes fiber-laden fabric. The layer of sprayed-in-place reinforcement and the layer of fabric reinforcement are superposed with each other along the pipe wall.
Other aspects and features will be apparent hereinafter.
Corresponding reference characters indicate corresponding parts throughout the several views of the drawings.
Referring to
Aspects of this disclosure pertain to a method of repairing the pipe 1 to reinforce the pipe to withstand both internal and external loads. Referring to
In one method of forming the reinforced pipe 101, an interior surface of the host pipe 1 is first prepared for rehabilitation. For example, an installation technician prepares an inner surface of a wall of the pipe 1 by cleaning, abrading, priming and/or drying the surface. In addition, if the surface has surface voids, they can be filled with an epoxy or other filler. If the wall of the pipe 1 has breaches, they can be at least temporarily blocked to prevent groundwater from infiltrating the pipe during later steps of the method. Generally, no pressurized fluid will be present in the pipe during the method. Many conventional pipe reinforcement methods require coating the inner surface of the host pipe with a tack coat before placing the reinforcing materials onto the host pipe. However, in the illustrated embodiment, the sprayed-in-place layer 10 is sprayed directly onto the prepared surface of the host pipe without first applying a tack coat. The inventors have determined that the desired reinforcement characteristics can be achieved this way without use of a tack coat. However, it will be understood that a tack coat may be applied on the host pipe's inner surface in one or more embodiments, without departing from the scope of the disclosure.
As shown in
Any suitable curable flowable material can be used to form the layer of sprayed-in-place reinforcement 10. Generally, curable flowable materials should be compatible with the layer of fabric reinforcement 12. For instance, the curable flowable material forming the sprayed-in-place reinforcement 10 should be capable of directly adhering to the curable polymer in the layer of fabric reinforcement 12 (discussed below). For example, the layer of sprayed-in-place reinforcement 10 is configured such that a layer of fabric reinforcement 12 material can adhere to its interior surface after the layer of sprayed-in-place reinforcement is fully cured. In an embodiment, the layer of sprayed-in-place reinforcement 10 is formed from a geopolymer mortar, for example a micro-fiber reinforced ultra-dense geopolymer mortar. An exemplary geopolymer mortar within the scope of this disclosure is GeoSpray®, available from the GeoTree™ Solutions brand of ClockSpring/NRI, located in Houston, Tex. It is also contemplated that other types of curable flowable materials can be used to form the layer of sprayed-in-place reinforcement 10. For instance, in one or more embodiments, the layer of sprayed-in-place reinforcement is formed from a cement mortar or a polyurea such as 3M™ Skotchkote™.
After spraying the curable flowable material onto the interior surface of host pipe 1, the material is cured to form in-place the layer of sprayed-in-place reinforcement 10. The material can be allowed to cure in ambient conditions or more rapidly cured using heat, UV, or other curing stimulant. Once cured, the layer of sprayed-in-place reinforcement 10 imparts compressive strength to the reinforced pipe 101, which reinforces the host pipe 1 against external loads.
Referring still to
In an exemplary embodiment, the layer of fabric reinforcement 12 comprises fiber-laden fabric impregnated with curable polymer. In one or more embodiments, the fiber-laden fabric includes high tensile strength fibers held together by a fabric architecture such as weave, a knit, felting, a braid, stitching, needle punching, or the like. In certain embodiments, the fiber-laden fabric has a strong direction and fibers of the fabric extending in the strong direction have greater aggregate tensile strength than fibers of the fabric extending in directions transverse to the strong direction. It is also contemplated that certain fiber-laden fabrics within the scope of this disclosure can be bi-axial or multi-axial fabrics having similar tensile strengths along multiple axes (e.g., along a 0° axis and a 90° axis; ±45° axes; a 0° axis, a 90° axis, and a 45° axis; or a 0° axis, a 90° axis, and a ±45° axes).
In one or more embodiments, the process of forming the layer of fabric reinforcement 12 comprises impregnating fiber-laden fabric with a curable polymer (e.g., a resin, e.g., Tyfo® S epoxy available from Fyfe Co. LLC of San Diego, Calif.) or a moisture-cured urea-urethane polymer. In the illustrated embodiment, an installer then positions the impregnated fabric in the interior of the host pipe 1 along the pipe wall such that impregnated fabric covers substantially an entire inner perimeter of the sprayed-in-place layer 10 along a length of the host pipe being repaired. Because the fabric reinforcement is being applied directly on the newly finished surface of the sprayed-in-place reinforcement 10, no preparation or tack coat is required. In an exemplary embodiment, the fiber-laden fabric is positioned such that at least some of the fibers in the fiber-laden fabric extend generally in the hoop direction of the pipe 1. Suitably, the fiber-laden fabric is positioned such that the strong direction extends generally in the hoop direction of the pipe 1. For example, in certain embodiments, a majority of the fibers in the fiber-laden fabric extend generally in the hoop direction of the host pipe 1 once the fiber-laden fabric is positioned in the host pipe. It is not necessary that a majority of fibers extend in the strength direction. It may be that fibers of higher strength extend in the strength direction. In a preferred embodiment, the fiber-laden fabric is impregnated prior to being placed on the wall of the pipe 1. However, the fiber-laden fabric could also be placed at the desired position before being impregnated with a curable polymer without departing from the scope of the invention. In such an embodiment, the fiber-laden fabric would be impregnated with a curable polymer after it is positioned on the layer of sprayed-in-place reinforcement.
After applying the impregnated fiber-laden fabric to the interior surface of the layer of sprayed-in-place reinforcement 10, the curable polymer impregnated in the fabric is cured to form in-place the layer of fabric reinforcement 12. The curable polymer used in the layer of fabric reinforcement 12 can be allowed to cure in ambient conditions or more rapidly cured using heat, UV, or other curing stimulant. It will be understood that the order and timing of curing the sprayed-in-place reinforcement 10 and the fabric reinforcement 12 can be adjusted as desired. Once cured, the layer of fabric reinforcement 12 imparts tensile strength in the hoop direction to the reinforced pipe 101, which reinforces the host pipe 1 against internal loads.
One technique for installing a layer of fabric reinforcement is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,931,198, which is assigned to the assignee of the present invention and which is attached hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety. In U.S. Pat. No. 5,931,198, the impregnated fiber-laden fabric is pressed against the host pipe by hand. The system and method described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,931,198 produces a structurally reinforced pipe (
The inventors have recognized that the material used in the layer of sprayed-in-place reinforcement 10 is substantially less expensive than the material used in the layer of fabric reinforcement 12 per unit of cross-sectional area of the pipe 1. Thus in one or more embodiments, the wall thickness of the layer of sprayed-in-place reinforcement 10 is greater than the wall thickness of the layer of fabric reinforcement 12. For example, in an embodiment, the wall thickness of the layer of sprayed-in-place reinforcement 10 is at least four-times greater than the thickness of the layer of fabric reinforcement 12 (e.g., at least eight-times greater, at least twelve-times greater, at least twenty-times greater). In one or more embodiments, the thickness of the layer of fabric reinforcement layer 12 is less than about 1 inch (e.g., less than 0.5 inches, less than 0.25 inches) and the thickness of the layer of sprayed-in-place reinforcement 10 is less than about 6 inches (e.g., less than 4 inches). In certain embodiments, the thickness of the layer of sprayed-in-place reinforcement 10 is greater than about 0.5 inches (e.g., greater than 1 inch, greater than 1.5 inches, greater than 2.0 inches). Increasing the thickness of the sprayed-in-place layer 10 provides enhanced compressive strength in the reinforced pipe 101.
As can be seen, the first and second layers of reinforcement 10, 12 form a composite reinforced pipe 101 that reinforces the preexisting host pipe 1. The first and second layers of reinforcement 10, 12 each provide different strength properties. Together, the two layers of reinforcement act to reinforce the host pipe 1 against both internal and external loads.
In one or more embodiments, the layer of sprayed-in-place reinforcement 10 is configured to reinforce the host pipe 1 against external loads. In one or more embodiments, the tensile strength in the hoop direction of the sprayed-in-place material is less than that of the fabric reinforcement. Thus, devoid of the fabric layer 12 (whose strength properties are discussed below), the layer of sprayed-in-place reinforcement imparts only limited resistance to mechanical failure in response to internal loads. In an exemplary embodiment, the sprayed-in-place material has a compressive strength of at least about 2000 psi. Forming the sprayed-in-place material to be greater in thickness than the fabric layer 12 enables the layer of sprayed-in-place reinforcement to substantially enhance the resistance to mechanical failure due to externally applied loads, in comparison with the layer of fabric reinforcement alone, which can be prone to buckling. The high compressive strength layer 10 reinforces the host pipe 1 against external loads applied to the pipe. Suitably, the layer of sprayed-in-place reinforcement 10 can also have a flexural strength of at least about 400 psi. Strength properties of certain exemplary (non-limiting) materials usable to form a composite reinforced pipe in accordance with the present disclosure are provided in the following Table 1:
The layer of fabric reinforcement 12 has relatively great tensile strength in the hoop direction of the pipe 1. In one or more embodiments, the material forming the layer of fabric reinforcement 12 has a tensile strength in the hoop direction of at least about 10 ksi. Even though a relatively thin layer of material is used for the layer of fabric reinforcement 12, it provides good resistance to mechanical failure (e.g., rupture) in response internal loads that are imparted on the pipe 1. However, because the layer of fabric reinforcement 12 is relatively thin, it does not provide substantial resistance to buckling or other types of mechanical failure due to external loads imparted on the pipe 1. As explained above, the layer of fabric reinforcement 12 comprises a fiber-laden fabric with high tensile strength fibers, and a substantial portion (e.g., a majority) of the high tensile strength fibers extend in the hoop direction of the pipe. The layer of fabric reinforcement 12 thus reinforces the host pipe 1 against internal loads applied by the pressurized fluid flowing through the pipe, thereby complementing the high compressive strength characteristics of the sprayed-in-place reinforcement layer 10. Thus, in combination, the two layers of reinforcement 10, 12 impart both tensile strength and compressive strength to the reinforced pipe 101 to reinforce the host pipe against both internal and external loads.
Referring to
Referring to
In one or more embodiments, the inner layer of fabric reinforcement 115 comprises fiber-laden fabric comprising high tensile strength fibers and a substantial portion (e.g., a majority) of the high tensile strength fibers of the inner layer of fabric reinforcement extend generally in the hoop direction of the pipe 1. Thus, the inner layer of fabric reinforcement 115 can impart substantial tensile strength in the hoop direction of the pipe 1. In one or more embodiments, the inner layer of fabric reinforcement 115 has a tensile strength in the hoop direction of at least about 10 ksi. By contrast in certain embodiments, the compressive strength of the inner layer of fabric reinforcement 115 is relatively low. In certain embodiments, the thickness of the layer of sprayed-in-place reinforcement 113 is at least four-times greater than the thickness of the inner layer of fabric reinforcement 115 (e.g., at least eight-times greater, at least twelve-times greater, at least 20-times greater). In one or more embodiments, the inner layer of fabric reinforcement 115 is less than about 1 inches (e.g., less than 0.5 inches, less than 0.25 inches).
After the inner layer of fabric reinforcement 115 is impregnated, positioned, and cured, the three layers of reinforcement 111, 113, 115 form a composite reinforced pipe 301 that reinforces the preexisting host pipe 1 against both internal and external loads. The outer and inner layers of fabric reinforcement 111, 115 impart tensile strength in the hoop direction of the reinforced pipe 301 and the layer of sprayed-in-place reinforcement 113 imparts compressive strength.
The systems, apparatuses, devices and/or other articles disclosed herein may be formed through any suitable means. The various methods and techniques described above provide a number of ways to carry out the inventions. Of course, it is to be understood that not necessarily all objectives or advantages described may be achieved in accordance with any particular embodiment described herein. Thus, for example, those skilled in the art will recognize that the methods may be performed in a manner that achieves or optimizes one advantage or group of advantages as taught herein without necessarily achieving other objectives or advantages as may be taught or suggested herein.
Furthermore, the skilled artisan will recognize the interchangeability of various features from different embodiments disclosed herein. Similarly, the various features and steps discussed above, as well as other known equivalents for each such feature or step, can be mixed and matched by one of ordinary skill in this art to perform methods in accordance with principles described herein. Additionally, the methods which are described and illustrated herein are not limited to the exact sequence of acts described, nor are they necessarily limited to the practice of all of the acts set forth. Other sequences of events or acts, or less than all of the events, or simultaneous occurrence of the events, may be utilized in practicing the embodiments of the invention.
Although the inventions have been disclosed in the context of certain embodiments and examples, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that the inventions extend beyond the specifically disclosed embodiments to other alternative embodiments and/or uses and obvious modifications and equivalents thereof. Accordingly, it is not intended that the inventions be limited, except as by the appended claims.
This application claims priority to U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 62/944,562, which was filed on Dec. 6, 2019, under the title, “Method of Reinforcing Pipe and Reinforced Pipe.”
Number | Date | Country | |
---|---|---|---|
62944562 | Dec 2019 | US |