Assessing ground support of plastic pipes using ultrasound

The ability to detect early signs of failure in buried pipe infrastructure is necessary to facilitate the continued use of ageing infrastructure for delivery of society’s essential services and move beyond disruptive and expensive reactive maintenance and repair. This paper reports detailed experiments on the use of in-pipe ultrasound techniques for assessment of ground conditions around buried plastic pipes. Two sets of ultrasonic experiment on the soil conditions are presented: (1) existence, shape, and dimension of void, and (2) water content in the soil. The ultrasound technique is shown to be capable for detecting water filled voids and assessing the soil support, critical early indicators of failure. The technique requires water as the transmission media hence is naturally suited to application in operational water distribution systems. The work represents an important advance in in-pipe condition assessment of plastic pipes, demonstrates the practical capability of the ultrasound technique, which is critical for progression towards proactive maintenance, offering cost and service improvements.