Improving Concrete For Enhanced Pipeline Protection

A number of field applications have been suggested for ECC materials in the oil and gas industry based on this unique material behavior. These include oil platform applications that require extreme durability in harsh environmental conditions, foundation elements in which steel anchors and concrete footings are in direct connection, the fabrication of foundation pilings as a result of high resistance to impact loads and environmental deterioration, and seismic applications which require significant ductility in pipeline response to large earthquake events.

Conclusions
The engineered cementitious composite (ECC) materials have proven a viable and mechanically superior pipeline protection material when compared to existing concrete coatings. This is due to the intentional formation of a different class of cracks within ECC material as compared to concrete or fiber-reinforced concrete under load. Steady-state flat cracks in ECC do not grow wider as they grow longer, thereby allowing ECC material to deform in a ductile fashion under tension similar to mild steel.

This ductile behavior through micro-cracking provides several improved mechanical properties to pipeline coatings as compared to conventional technologies including penetration resistance, impact protection, and flexibility. The radical improvement in the technical performance of the concrete can be potentially used to design other new applications for the oil and gas industry and further research will be done to develop ECC solutions for unstable ground conditions such as seismically active regions and permafrost, as well as for offshore environments.

Authors
Michael D. Lepech, Ph.D., is an assistant professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering and fellow at the Center for Sustainable Development and Global Competitiveness at Stanford University. His research interests lie in the development of ductile cementitious composites and other composite materials, in particular for applications in the sustainable built environment. He is also an expert in the application of life cycle assessment techniques for design of sustainable infrastructure materials and systems. He received his Ph.D. (2006) and MBA (2009) from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. He can be contacted at mlepech@stanford.edu.

Vlad Popovici is a marketing manager at Bredero Shaw. He manages multiple economic and strategic assessments of pipeline projects worldwide and is in charge of identifying and developing new pipeline protection concepts. Popovici holds an MBA (2005) from McGill University in Montreal and has been publishing technical articles and economic analyses since 1996. He can be reached at VPopovici@BrederoShaw.com.

Gregor Fischer, Ph.D., is an associate professor of Civil Engineering at the Technical University of Denmark. His research interests center around the development of new ductile cement-based composite for infrastructure applications, most recently in the development of ductile precast commercial and residential building elements. He received his Ph.D. (2002) from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.