Development of an Inspection Platform and a Suite of Sensors for Assessing Corrosion and Mechanical Damage on Unpiggable Transmission Mains Quarterly Report (open access)

Development of an Inspection Platform and a Suite of Sensors for Assessing Corrosion and Mechanical Damage on Unpiggable Transmission Mains Quarterly Report

This development program is a joint effort among the Northeast Gas Association (formerly New York Gas Group), Foster-Miller, Inc., GE Oil & Gas (PII), and the US Department of Energy (DOE) through the National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL). The total cost of the project is $772,525, with the National Energy Technology Laboratory of the US Department of Energy contributing $572,525, and the Northeast Gas Association contributing $200,000. The present report summarizes the accomplishments of the project during its fifth three-month period (from October 2003 through December 2003). The efforts of the project focused during this period in completing the assessment of the tether technology, which is intended to be used as the means of communication between robot and operator, in completing the design of the MFL sensor modules, and in completing the kinematic studies and tractor design. In addition, work on the ovality sensor has been completed, while work on system integration is nearly complete. Results to date indicate that the robotic system under design will be able to meet most of the design specifications initially prescribed. The kinematic analysis shows that from a locomotor point of view an inspection of a 16 inch-24 inch pipe size range with a …
Date: February 1, 2004
Creator: Vradis, George C.
System: The UNT Digital Library