Acquistion of Large-Scale Trenchless Technologies Testing and Research Facility (L-STaR

美国的地下基础设施有超过350万英里的地下公用事业服务（包括水，下水道，电力，天然气，电话，有线电视和其他服务），是一个巨大的资源，几乎影响到每一个企业和家庭。在世界各地，各国每年安装大约30万英里的地下公用设施，每年的市场价值超过350亿美元。地下公用设施的平均设计寿命为20至50年，但目前用于维护和更换这些资产的实际年度支出意味着它们必须持续数百至数千年。非开挖技术包括用于安装和维护地下管道和公用设施的系统，而无需从地面挖掘连续的沟槽。所使用的许多技术都是通过实地创新和逐步完善而开发的，但它们可能缺乏对实地关键流程如何真正运作的基本了解，而且这些技术的潜力与目前的实施之间存在很大差距。最具成本效益的地下公用事业系统问题的解决方案的优化需要在工程和科学的各个分支密切合作。因此，建议建立一个多学科的研究和测试设施，能够支持尖端的基础和应用研究以及概念设计，开发和测试先进技术的非开挖方法来解决地下公用事业问题。仪器的要求是建立一个大规模（6米6米2米高）的土壤结构试验室，作为一个多学科实验室的基石，先进的非开挖技术的研究和教育。拟议的设施将是美国南部唯一的此类设施，并将与现有的现场测试设施相连。它将使来自不同学科和不同机构的广泛教师能够使用严格控制的模拟现场环境进行研究。设想的研究领域包括安装和修复系统的土壤-结构相互作用研究，新方法的原型测试，设计方法的开发和改进，与非破坏性地下检测和评估方法相关的基础研究，以及先进传感器和埋地管道监测技术的开发和测试。路易斯安那理工大学的非开挖技术中心（TTC）和工程与科学学院在开发这种设施方面处于独特的地位。拟议请求的知识价值在于建立一个设施，在受控的实验室环境中，可以密切模拟地下公用设施的现场安装、评估和修复情况。这将提供一种手段，以更严格的方式了解行业中使用的当前技术的详细性能，更重要的是，有助于开发新的系统。该提议的更广泛影响是，我们老化的地下公用事业基础设施和日益增长的利用地下新建设施的需求，加上高成本和技术困难，为研究、开发和教育方面的重大举措提供了重要激励。这一请求将提供一个国家研究机构的基石，使路易斯安那理工大学的研究人员能够与全国各地的研究人员合作，以满足研究需求。

A vast world often hidden from public view, America's underground infrastructure with more than 3.5 million miles of underground utility services (involving water, sewer, electric, gas, telephone, cable and other services) represents a substantial resource that affects almost every business and home. Across the world, countries install approximately 300,000 miles of underground utilities annually with a market value of over $35 billion per year. Average design lives of underground utilities are 20 to 50 years but current actual annual spending on maintaining and replacing these assets implies that they must last hundreds to thousands of years. Trenchless technologies include systems for installing and maintaining underground pipes and utilities without the need for excavating a continuous trench from the surface. Many of the techniques used have been developed through field innovation and progressive refinement, but they may lack a fundamental understanding of how critical processes within the ground really operate and that there is a large gap between the potential of the techniques and their current implementation. The most cost effective optimization of solutions to underground utility system problems requires close collaboration across various branches of engineering and science. Thus, it is proposed to establish a multi-disciplinary research and testing facility capable of supporting cutting-edge fundamental and applied research as well as concept design, development and testing of advanced technologies for trenchless approaches to solving underground utility problems. The instrumentation request is to create a large scale (6 m by 6 m by 2 m high) soil-structure testing chamber as the cornerstone of a multi-disciplinary laboratory for advanced trenchless technology research and education. The proposed facility will be the only one of its kind in the southern half of the USA and will be linked to an existing field test facility. It will enable a broad range of faculty from different disciplines and different institutions to pursue research using a closely controlled, simulated field environment. Envisioned areas of research include soil-structure interaction studies for installation and rehabilitation systems, prototype testing of novel methods, development and refinement of design methods, fundamental studies related to non-destructive underground detection and assessment methods, and the development and testing of advanced sensors and monitoring technology for buried pipes. The Trenchless Technology Center (TTC) and College of Engineering and Science at Louisiana Tech University are in a unique position to develop such a facility. The intellectual merit of the proposed request is in the creation of a facility in which the circumstances of field installation, assessment and rehabilitation of buried utilities can be closely simulated in a controlled laboratory environment. This will provide a means to understand in a more rigorous fashion the detailed performance of current techniques used in the industry and, more importantly, assist in the development of novel systems. The broader impact of the proposed request is that our aging underground utility infrastructure and an increasing need to use the underground for new facilities combined with high costs and technical difficulties provide an important incentive for a major initiative in research, development, and education. This request will provide the cornerstone of a national research facility that will allow researchers at Louisiana Tech University to cooperate with researchers across the country in addressing the research needs.