Case Study
Evides Watercompany, The Netherlands
Evides Watercompany was open to exploring new ways to reduce risks and extend the service life of their buried infrastructure. In particular, Evides wanted to assess the condition of its TL2.60 pipeline, a cement-lined 800mm (31.5 inch) steel pipe, with 2.8 kilometers (1.7 miles) of the inspected pipeline running along an important highway connecting Rotterdam to The Hague.
To assist in the condition assessment, Evides elected to deploy the 24-sensor PipeDiver®, an innovative tool from Pure Technologies designed to assess and address large-diameter metallic pipelines.
Project Details
Services |
SmartBall® leak detection
PipeDiver® condition assessment |
Timing |
2016 |
Pipe Material |
Steel |
Inspection Length |
2.84 km (1.7 miles) |
Diameter |
800mm (31.5-inch) |
Transmission Type |
Water |
Project Highlights
Challenge
PipeDiver is a flexible, free-swimming condition assessment tool for pressurized water and wastewater pipelines. The video-equipped tool is ideal for critical pipelines that cannot be removed from service due to a lack of redundancy or operational constraints.
Solution
This Evides inspection marked the first condition assessment of metallic pipe using the 24D PipeDiver in Europe, an exercise that confirmed the validity of the tool’s sensor technology and validate once more the effectiveness of the platform to inspect pipelines.
The insertions went off without a hitch, and the PipeDiver sailed through the pipeline obstacle course with ease, gathering EM data along the route.
Results
After the inspection, three out of the four locations were dug-up to verify the reported defects, using non-destructive ultrasonic techniques. On each of the locations, the defects were found, and the actual material loss was in the range of the reported material loss.
Overall, the results proved the worth of PipeDiver as an advanced condition assessment tool able to deliver precise, actionable data on metallic pipes. The exercise showed the PipeDiver tool as a cost-effective solution versus methods that have operational constraints or require a shutdown or dewatering, or in this case, taken out of service. Evides estimated capital savings of 1.1M Euros as a result of the inspection and repairs.
Quote
“PipeDiver proved to be a suitable tool for one of our most important inspection needs: Corrosion of cement-lined steel pipes. We are especially glad the tool was able to pass a butterfly valve, and to be inserted and extracted through 600mm manholes, as this greatly improves operability and cost effectiveness.”
–Bart Bergmans, Project Manager, Infrastructure Asset Management, Evides Watercompany