Mesh Stent Expansion for Repairing Partially Collapsed Pipes
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing pipe repair methods using coil-shaped replacement pipes result in overlapping sections that interfere with relining, reduce hydrodynamic conductivity, and require prefabricated support plates for specific diameters, leading to inefficiencies and increased disruption.
Innovation Solution
A pipe repair apparatus using a mesh stent that expands to fit the pipe's shape, minimizing excavation and allowing for uniform expansion without overlapping edges, ensuring good hydraulic conductivity and compatibility with relining.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a coil-shaped replacement pipe is used to repair partially collapsed pipes, then the pipe can be straightened and repaired, but the overlapping section reduces hydrodynamic conductivity and interferes with relining
Solution Approach 1:
The patent employs a flexible support plate made of thin material that can be coiled and inserted into the collapsed pipe section. This thin film structure provides the necessary support to straighten the pipe without creating bulky overlapping sections, thereby maintaining hydrodynamic conductivity and allowing relining operations to proceed without interference.
Solution Approach 2:
The support plate is designed as a coiled structure that can be divided into multiple segments or loops. This segmentation allows the support plate to adapt to different pipe diameters and collapse patterns while maintaining continuous support along the pipe section, eliminating the need for large overlapping sections.
2Manufacturing precision
If a prefabricated support plate is used for specific pipe diameters, then the repair can be precise, but a large stock of different sized support plates is required or longer wait-time for manufacture
Solution Approach 1:
The support plate is designed with dynamic characteristics that allow it to change its effective diameter. By controlling the expansion and contraction of the coiled structure, a single support plate design can adapt to multiple pipe diameters, eliminating the need for maintaining a large stock of different sized prefabricated plates while still achieving precise fit.
Solution Approach 2:
The support plate utilizes parameter changes in its structural configuration - specifically the coil diameter and expansion ratio - to adapt to different pipe sizes. By adjusting these parameters during deployment, the same support plate can be precisely fitted to various pipe diameters without requiring multiple pre-fabricated variants.
3Ease of operation
If minimal excavation is used for pipe repair, then disruption to human activities is minimized, but access to the collapsed pipe section must be obtained through existing openings
Solution Approach 1:
The support plate is designed to be nested within the existing pipe structure and deployed through existing access openings such as manholes. The coiled configuration allows the support plate to be compactly stored and inserted through limited openings, then expanded in-situ to provide full support, eliminating the need for extensive excavation while maintaining operational simplicity.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The apparatus quickly repairs partially collapsed pipes with minimal disruption, maintaining hydraulic conductivity and reducing the risk of relining damage, while allowing for seamless integration of relining layers.
Implementation Method 1
a mesh stent having been fitted around the outside of an actuation assembly of a pipe repair apparatus... causing actuation, of at least one of arms in the plurality of arms, between a retracted configuration in which the at least one arm exerts substantially no force against an interior surface of the pipe, and an extended configuration in which the at least one arm extends outwards to exert a force against the mesh stent and the interior surface of the pipe
Implementation Method 2
the actuation comprises: receiving user input via a control interface... causing actuation, of at least one of arms in the plurality of arms
Data Source
Figure 1
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Figure 3a~3c
AI summary
A pipe repair apparatus for repairing partially collapsed pipes. The pipe repair apparatus comprises: an actuation assembly comprising: a plurality of actuation arms; a plurality of hydraulic cylinders; and a plurality of hydraulic lines, wherein each hydraulic line in the plurality of hydraulic lines supplies hydraulic fluid to a respective hydraulic cylinder in the plurality of hydraulic cylinders, wherein each hydraulic cylinder in the plurality of hydraulic cylinders is configured to move a respective actuation arm in the plurality of actuation arms between a retracted configuration and an extended configuration to move a partially collapsed part of a partially collapsed pipe from a partially collapsed form to a non-collapsed form. The pipe repair apparatus comprises a control module configured to control each individual hydraulic line in the plurality of hydraulic lines such that each actuation arm in the plurality of actuation arms is actuated independently.