SBIR Phase I: Hardness Strength and Ductility Tester for Field Assessment of Structures

该小型企业创新研究第一阶段项目将支持便携式仪器的商业化，该仪器能够在不中断服务的情况下探测现有基础设施的硬度、强度和延展性。管道、建筑物和桥梁的灾难性故障导致生命损失和数十亿美元的维修、补救和责任。管道和危险材料安全管理局（PHMSA）估计，在过去20年中，修复管道故障的总成本为70亿美元。新的便携式仪器将提高负责完整性管理和状况评估的人员的能力，通过确定无法获得原始质量记录的管道的压力能力，防止事故和故障。这将是一种更安全，侵入性更小，更经济的替代方案，以去除材料样本进行实验室检测。它将取代现有的基于压痕硬度测试的现场表面机械评估。石油和天然气管道表征服务的初始市场规模为每年2500万美元。 预计还将用于交通、能源和海军基础设施的状态评估。该仪器还可用于进口钢铁产品和先进制造业（包括航空航天）的质量控制测试。该项目的智力价值包括将摩擦滑动的接触力学测试从实验室转移到现场服务，以测量材料的机械性能。 新仪器的测量值作为材料应力应变曲线的非经验预测方程的输入。 该方程是改编自以前的学术研究，其中参数有限元和量纲分析提供了一个独特的材料应力应变曲线，从测量的残余表面轮廓的特性。 与压痕硬度不同，摩擦滑动允许通过焊接接头连续表征性能梯度，这是现场故障的常见位置。 该项目改进了现有的触针自对准和现场表面轮廓技术的概念，目的是验证仪器在管道完整性市场的准确性。 主要的努力包括集成仪器来测量材料的响应与滑动的表面上的触针的行动。 此外，一个双触针单元将被实施，以提高仪器的精度，通过获取材料的响应，两种不同的几何形状的接触。 通过这项研究，一个原型现场测试单元将实施进一步验证测试的方法用于管道基础设施。

This Small Business Innovation Research Phase I project will support commercialization of a portable instrument capable of probing the hardness, strength and ductility of existing infrastructure without service interruption. Catastrophic failures of pipelines, buildings and bridges result in loss of life and billions of dollars in repair, remediation, and liability. The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) estimated the total cost incurred to remediate pipeline failures at $7 billion over the past 20 years. The new portable instrument will enhance the ability of those responsible for integrity management and condition assessment to prevent accidents and failures by determining the pressure capacity of pipelines for which original quality records are unavailable. It will be a safer, less invasive, and more economical alternative to removing a sample of material for laboratory testing. It will supersede existing in-field surface mechanical assessment based on indentation hardness testing. The initial market size for characterization services to oil and gas pipelines is $25 million per year. Additional applications for condition assessment of transportation, energy and naval infrastructures are expected. The instrument may also serve in quality control testing for imported steel products and for advanced manufacturing industries including aerospace. The intellectual merit of this project includes the transfer from laboratory to field service of a contact mechanical test of frictional sliding to measure mechanical properties of materials. Measurements from the new instrument serve as an input into non-empirical predicting equations for the material stress strain curve. The equations are adapted from previous academic research where parametric finite element and dimensional analysis provide a unique material stress strain curve from measured characteristics of the residual surface profile. Unlike indentation hardness, frictional sliding allows for continuous characterization of gradients in properties through welded joints, a frequent location of field failures. This project improves upon existing concepts of stylus self-alignment and field surface profiling techniques with the objective to validate accuracy of the instrument for the pipeline integrity market. The main effort includes integrating instrumentation to measure the material response with the action of sliding the stylus on the surface. Also, a dual-stylus unit will be implemented to improve the instrument accuracy through acquiring the material response to two different geometries of contact. Through this research, a prototype field testing unit will be implemented for further validation testing of the method for use on pipeline infrastructures.