NEESR Payload: Fiber Optic Method for Buried Pipelines Health Assessment after Earthquake-Induced Ground Movement

该奖项（NEESR有效载荷）是NSF 09-524项目招标“小乔治·e·布朗地震工程模拟（NEES）研究网络（NEESR）”竞赛的结果，包括普林斯顿大学（该NEESR有效载荷项目的牵头机构）和密歇根大学安娜堡分校（NEESR有效载荷CMMI-0724022的牵头机构，将容纳该NEESR有效载荷）。该项目将利用康奈尔大学的NEES设备站点。将与NEESR奖CMMI-0724022的其他合作伙伴、梅里马克学院和普渡大学密切合作。自然灾害，特别是地震，可能对输送水或碳氢化合物等维持生命和社会的物资的管道造成破坏。地震对管道的破坏会造成灾难性的人道主义、社会、经济和生态后果。因此，地震后对管道损坏进行实时、自动或按需评估对于早期应急响应、有效准备救援计划和减轻灾难性后果至关重要。对埋地管道的评估尤其具有挑战性。本有效载荷项目将开发一种实时、自动或按需评估地震后埋地管道健康状况的方法。重点将是地震引起的地面位移所产生的损伤检测和定位。该方法将基于分布式光纤传感技术的使用，并将适用于混凝土和钢管道。分布式光纤传感器可以用一条几公里长的电缆来表示，该电缆在其长度上的每个点都很敏感。因此，一个分布式传感器可以取代数千个传统的点传感器，并且安装和操作的难度更低，更经济。应变（变形）和温度都将进行监测：应变（变形）是由于地震引起的地面位移实际上使管道发生应变（变形），而温度传感则是由于管道的损坏往往与输送物质的泄漏有关，而管道的泄漏可以通过周围土壤热参数的变化间接检测到。除了损伤评估外，该方法还可用于结构长期健康监测和运行监测，为终身维修活动提供重要的输入。所提出的方法将有助于减轻地震引起的管道破坏的灾难性后果，但它也将有助于管道的终身维护活动，通过结构健康监测和运行监测。这将通过提高人口和货物的安全、遏制工业和用户的经济损失以及保护环境，对社会产生直接的广泛影响。通过与其他NEESR奖合作伙伴的合作，特别是与非博士学位授予机构梅里马克学院的合作，将扩大参与范围。该项目的成果将被纳入普林斯顿大学本科阶段（结构分析课程）和研究生阶段（结构健康监测课程）的课程。该项目的结果将由普林斯顿大学首席研究员与NEESR奖CMMI-0724022的合作伙伴共同以通讯、网页、发表在科学期刊和专业杂志上的论文、文件、海报和通过网络研讨会（网络研讨会）的形式传播给相关行业、从业者和更广泛的公众。该项目需要在若干学科进行研究，因此将建立多学科合作，并将在国家和国际一级的多学科讲习班和会议上提出该项目。该项目的数据将存档，并通过NEES数据储存库向公众提供。

This award (NEESR Payload) is an outcome of the NSF 09-524 program solicitation ''George E. Brown, Jr. Network for Earthquake Engineering Simulation (NEES) Research (NEESR)'' competition and includes the Princeton University (lead institution of this NEESR Payload project) and University of Michigan at Ann Arbor (lead institution of NEESR Award CMMI-0724022 that will accommodate this NEESR Payload). This project will utilize the NEES equipment site at the Cornell University. Close collaboration will be realized with other partners of the NEESR Award CMMI-0724022, Merrimack College and Purdue University.Natural disasters, in particular earthquakes, can cause damage to pipelines which transport life- and society-sustaining supplies, such as water or hydrocarbons. Earthquake damage to pipelines can have disastrous humanitarian, social, economic, and ecologic consequences. Consequently, real-time, and automatic or on-demand assessment of damage to pipelines after the earthquake is essential for early emergency response, efficient preparation of rescue plans, and mitigation of the disastrous consequences. Assessment is particularly challenging for buried pipelines. A method for real-time, automatic or on-demand, assessment of health condition of buried pipelines after the earthquake will be developed in this Payload project. The focus will be on damage detection and localization generated by earthquake induced ground displacement. The method will be based on the use of distributed fiber-optic sensing technology and will be applicable to both concrete and steel pipelines. A distributed fiber-optic sensor can be represented by a single several-kilometer long cable that is sensitive at every point along its length. Hence, one distributed sensor can replace thousands of traditional point sensors, and is less difficult and more economical to install and operate. Both, strain (deformation) and temperature will be monitored: strain (deformation) because the earthquake induced ground displacement actually strains (deforms) the pipe, while temperature sensing is proposed since the damage of a pipeline is often correlated with leakage of transported material that can be indirectly detected as a change of thermal parameters in the surrounding soil. Besides the assessment of damage, the method can be used for long-term structural health monitoring and operational monitoring, which will serve as an important input for lifetime maintenance activities.The proposed method will help mitigate disastrous consequences of the earthquake-induced damage to pipelines, but it will also help lifetime maintenance activities of pipelines through structural health monitoring and operational monitoring. This will have a direct broad impact on society through an increase in safety for the human population and goods, the containment of economical losses for industry and users, and the preservation of the environment. Broadened participation will be achieved through teamwork with other NEESR award partners, and in particular with Merrimack College, MA, which is a non-PhD-granting institution. The outcomes of the project will be included in Princeton University courses at both the undergraduate level (structural analysis course) and graduate level (structural health monitoring course). Results of the project will be disseminated by the Principal Investigator at Princeton University and jointly with partners of NEESR Award CMMI-0724022 to relevant industries, practitioners, and the broader public in the form of newsletters, website pages, papers published in scientific journals and professional magazines, documents, posters, and presentations via web-seminars (webinars). The project necessitates research in several disciplines and consequently, a multi-disciplinary collaboration will be established and the project will be presented in multi-disciplinary workshops and conferences at the national and international level. Data from this project will be archived and made available to the public through the NEES data repository.