Refurbishment of Small Diameter Embedded Pipes in Powerplants and Dams

Project ID: 23008
Principal Investigator: Allen Skaja
Research Topic: Repair and Maintenance
Funded Fiscal Years: 2023
Keywords: None

Research Question

• What refurbishment solutions are commercially available for embedded small diameter pipe?
• Can these technologies be implemented for the operation conditions at Reclamation facilities?
• Can a decision tree be developed for the various solutions to implement the correct refurbishment technique?
• The research will investigate cured in place pipe, spray in place pipe, cement mortar lining, coatings, and slip lining.

Need and Benefit

• Need: Many facilities are having issues with embedded small diameter pipe suffering significant corrosion and even leaks in the pipes. Conventional repair/ replacement techniques are not feasible because they are embedded in concrete and are not accessible by pipe entry due to being smaller than 24 inch diameter.

• Urgency: If the pipe fails upstream of a valve, the water cannot be turned off and flood the powerplant/ dam galleries/ pumping plant. This would be a major problem since there may not be stop logs or bulkhead gates to isolate these small diameter pipe intakes.

• If there are no commercially available options that will work for Reclamation needs, further research would be required to either develop something or partner with a company to develop the technology.

The benefits of this research would be to identify technologies that could refurbish small diameter piping and develop a decision flow chart to help future Reclamation project come to a consensus faster. The impact of the flow chart will help Reclamation designers come to a decision faster, and cheaper than for the Keys PGP discharge tube project.

Contributing Partners

Contact the Principal Investigator for information about partners.

Research Products

Please contact research@usbr.gov about research products related to this project.

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Last Updated: 6/22/20