Pressure Pipe Testing – Étude de cas

Short Description:

OXAND Company (France) collaborated with EDF (Electricité de France) on a pressure pipe testing project regarding the control of the ageing of the cooling pipe circuits for nuclear power plants built on the coast. In this context, OXAND proposed non-destructive monitoring of the structural performance using the SOFO system.

Aim of monitoring:

To test the feasibility of the method, pressure pipe testing was performed on different pipe specimens in a laboratory and on-site. The pipe specimen consisted of three coaxial layers of ordinary concrete, a metallic layer, and reinforced concrete. Different types of artificial damage, simulating the consequences of aging, were introduced to the specimens, and pressurisation tests were performed. One long and four short SOFO SMARTapes were installed by gluing them over the circumference of the artificially damaged cross-section. Each of the four short SMARTapes covered a different quarter of the section making a full ring, while the long SMARTape was installed parallel to the short ones, covering the whole circumference. In addition to SMARTapes, two longitudinal Standard sensors were installed to monitor bending, and thermocouples were used to control temperature variations. After a test on one specimen was finished, all of the sensors were successfully uninstalled and reused for other tests. All the data was processed in quasi-real-time using the SOFO Pro and SOFO

View software, which displayed the results directly on the Internet to make it possible for involved EDF engineers, in different offices around France, to follow the test online. 

Main results:

Average strain measurements performed on the pipe circumference provided reliable data concerning the pipe’s structural behavior and made it possible to simulate aging damage detection.