Underground Pipe Encapsulation Foam with Reinforcing Membranes
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Solution Overview
Problem
Underground pipelines face stress and rupture risks due to abrasive contents in the ground and thermal expansion, leading to potential environmental hazards and economic losses.
Innovation Solution
A kit comprising elongate foam sections that form a longitudinally elongate cavity around the pipeline, with a securing arrangement and low-density foam for cushioning, along with reinforcing membranes to provide support and protection against external pressures and deformation.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of manufacture
If the pipeline is installed directly in the ground, then installation is simple and cost-effective, but the pipeline is subjected to stress from abrasive contents and thermal expansion, leading to rupture risks
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces an intermediary encapsulation system consisting of foam sections that wrap around the pipeline. This mediator absorbs the mechanical stress from abrasive ground contents and thermal expansion, protecting the pipeline while maintaining installation simplicity. The foam sections act as a cushioning layer between the pipeline and the harsh external environment.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent applies beforehand cushioning by pre-positioning foam sections around the pipeline before backfilling. These foam sections are designed to cushion the pipeline against future thermal expansion and external ground forces, preventing stress concentration and potential rupture before they occur.
2Strength
If rigid protection structures are used to protect the pipeline, then protection against external stress is improved, but the pipeline cannot accommodate thermal expansion and contraction movements
Solution Approach 1:
The patent changes the physical parameter of the protection material from rigid to flexible foam sections. This flexible foam provides structural support and protection against external stress while simultaneously allowing the pipeline to expand and contract thermally without restriction, resolving the contradiction between strength and adaptability.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent employs flexible foam sections as protective shells around the pipeline. These flexible shells provide mechanical protection against ground abrasion and external forces while maintaining the ability to deform with thermal expansion, unlike rigid protection structures that would constrain movement.
3Reliability
If foam sections are used to protect the pipeline, then cushioning and movement permission are improved, but the foam sections may deform or puncture under external pressure
Solution Approach 1:
The patent uses composite construction by embedding reinforcing membranes within the foam sections. This creates a composite material structure where the foam provides cushioning and flexibility while the reinforcing membranes add tensile strength and puncture resistance, simultaneously improving both reliability and strength.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent applies local quality by placing reinforcing membranes at specific locations within the foam sections where stress concentration is most likely to occur. This targeted reinforcement provides enhanced strength and puncture resistance at critical areas while maintaining the overall cushioning properties of the foam.
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 solution effectively reduces stress on the pipeline, protects it from abrasive contents and thermal expansion, and prevents rupture, enhancing pipeline longevity and safety while allowing for movement due to thermal changes.
Implementation Method 1
a volume of low density foam which is less dense than a material of the first and second foam sections for filling unoccupied space in the cavity; whereby the volume of low density foam provides cushioning for the length of pipe such that movement of the length of pipe within the cavity is permitted and stress on the length of pipe is reduced
Implementation Method 2
the foam material, such as of the foam sections, may be suited for thermally insulating the length of pipe so as to resist frost build up thereon and reduce thermal expansion and contraction of the pipe
Implementation Method 3
the piping moves in the ground due to thermal expansion and contraction
Data Source
AI summary
A kit for encapsulating a length of pipe features first and second foam sections cooperatively shaped to form a cavity with open ends in a working configuration of the foam sections for receiving the length of pipe therein. A low density foam, which is lower in density than the material of the foam sections, fills an unoccupied space in the cavity so as to provide cushioning for the length of pipe such that movement of the length of pipe within the cavity is permitted and stress on the length of pipe is reduced. The foam sections may be reinforced with reinforcing membranes carried in a main body of the respective foam section. The reinforcing membranes may act to hold the foam material of the respective section together and to prevent puncture along a full thickness of the foam sections from abrasive debris in the ground.