Portable Indentation Plastometry for Safer Asset Integrity Management

全世界有超过200万英里的（天然气和液体）运输管道。当这些管道发生故障时，可能会对运营商和公众造成重大（和持久）的环境和经济损害。平均而言，85%的产品未被回收，53%的事故污染了土壤，41%的事故破坏了脆弱的生态系统。仅在美国，每年的经济成本就高达5亿美元。在过去的20年里，已经有250多人死亡。为了应对这种情况，不断变化的监管环境给现有管道网络的测试和安全管理带来了越来越大的压力，因为它们被重新用于氢气运输。仅在美国，新的“Mega Rule”安全立法将在未来15年创造125亿美元的管道测试市场。为了满足这些新的要求，现在迫切需要一种新的技术，可以以一种简单、可靠和负担得起的方式测试陆上管道网络。本项目将设计和开发一个便携式测量系统，用于管道的原位测试。该解决方案将把目前基于台式的创新测量方法（压痕塑性测量法）重新构想为便携式手持设备（称为P-PIP）。基础技术使用先进的数值方法，在2.5分钟（而不是几小时）内从无损测试中提取关键的金属强度参数。它也被证明比最接近的科学竞争对手精确8/7倍。P-PIP原型子系统将在我们的项目合作伙伴ROSEN的专家行业指导下进行设计、开发和测试。商业化路线图还将与ROSEN和其他专家顾问（来自元素材料技术和国家物理实验室）一起制定，以氢气运输和天然气管道市场为目标。成功的开发项目后将产生重大的区域和国家经济影响，更安全的管道，并支持全球向可持续氢经济过渡。

There are over 2 million miles of (gas and liquid) transport pipelines across the world. When these pipelines fail it can cause major (and lasting) environmental and economic damage to both operators and the public. On average, 85% of product released remains unrecovered, 53% of incidents contaminate soil, and 41% devastate fragile ecosystems. The economic cost is about $500m per year in the U.S. alone. There have been more than 250 deaths in the past 20 years.In response to this, a changing regulatory landscape is putting ever-increasing pressure on the testing and safe management of existing pipeline networks, as is their repurposing for use in hydrogen transport. In the US alone the new "Mega Rule" safety legislation is creating a $12.5 billion pipeline testing market over the next 15 years. To meet these new requirements there is now an urgent need for new technologies that can test onshore pipeline networks in a way that is simple, robust, and affordable.This project will design and develop a portable measurement system for the in-situ testing of pipelines. The solution will reimagine an innovative measurement methodology (Indentation Plastometry) which is currently benchtop-based, into a portable hand-held device (called P-PIP). The underlying technology uses advanced numerical methods to extract critical metal strength parameters in just 2.5 minutes (instead of hours) from a non-destructive test. It has also been shown to be 8/7 times more accurate than the nearest scientific competitor.P-PIP prototype sub-systems will be designed, developed, and tested with expert industry guidance from our project partner, ROSEN. A commercialisation roadmap will also be developed with ROSEN and other expert advisors (from Element Materials Technology and the National Physical Laboratory) to target hydrogen transport and natural gas pipeline markets. Successful exploitation post-project will create substantial regional and national economic impact, safer pipelines, and support the global transition to a sustainable hydrogen economy.