CHARACTERIZING AND TESTING OF MODIFIED OIL WELL CEMENTS, PIPE JOINTS AND MANHOLE COATING

Some of the challenges in maintaining the onshore and offshore infrastructures are in monitoring the performance of cementitious materials used in construction and the performance of joints in the storm water pipelines and coating on manholes. In order to monitor the setting time of oil well cement used in cementing oil wells and Portland cement used in many other construction were modified with additives to make the material more sensing. The curing of the modified oil well cement was compared with Portland cement by monitoring the changes in electrical resistivity. The curing behavior of modified oil well cement and Portland cement with and without foam showed the changes in resistivity with the curing. Modified oil well cement and Portland cement also exhibited enhanced piezo-resistive sensing property under compression load and hence can be used for monitoring the material’s behavior.
Multi wall polypropylene pipes are increasingly used in storm water applications. Based on a test protocol developed, polypropylene storm water pipe joints were tested under various loading conditions. Finite element model was used to investigate the pipe at the joints and the deflections were compared to the experimental results. Concrete and claybrick manholes were coated and tested under increasing hydrostatic pressure up to 11 psi for 21 days. The coating movement was measured during the testing period.