Developing Advanced Technologies for Field Performance Monitoring of Polypropylene Pipe

The Kansas Department of Transportation (KSDOT) has recently adopted polypropylene (PP) plastic pipes for highway drainage. Different from concrete and metal pipes, plastic pipes are expected to have large deformations under loading due to their lower stiffness. It is well known that plastic materials have creep behavior, i.e., deformations increase with time under constant loads. PP materials have more creep deformations than other polymer materials. However, when pipes are buried in the ground, they are subjected to lateral confinement from surrounding soils, which may reduce vertical deformations of pipes. This research team monitored two steel-reinforced high-density polyethylene (SRHDPE) pipes in the ground in the past K-TRAN projects using strain gauges, displacement transducers, and earth pressure cells. This field monitoring demonstrated that SRHDPE pipes performed well with small creep deformations at a slowly increasing rate. This good performance may be attributed to steel strip reinforcement embedded in the ribs around the pipe. So far, limited data is available on the deformations of PP plastic pipes in the ground; therefore, there is a great need for field monitoring of this type of pipe in the ground to ensure their long-term performance. Strain gauges and displacement transducers have been proved effective for field monitoring of pipes; however, they have major limitations: (1) they are placed at sparse locations along the pipe, (2) strain gauges do not last long, and (3) temperature effect is hard to consider for displacement transducers. To overcome these problems, distributed fiber optic sensors (DFOS) have been increasingly used to monitor infrastructures including pipes. One or multiple fibers are included a cable to be fixed on an object for measurements. Different from resistance types of gauges that measure resistance changes, DFOS measure the changes of light energy or frequency. The major advantages of DFOS are (1) they are suitable for long distance measurements (up to miles), (2) they provide almost continuous measurements along one fiber, (3) they significantly reduce the number of individual cables, (4) they can measure strains and temperatures so that the temperature effect can be corrected, (5) fibers can be placed not only along the longitudinal direction of the pipe but also around the cross-section of the pipe, and (6) fibers are relatively inexpensive. However, this technology has not been well implemented in field monitoring of plastic pipes; therefore, it requires research, confirmation, and development. For example, how measured strains are converted into deformations of pipes. To overcome the limitation of displacement transducers, photogrammetry has been used to capture deformed objects, such as pipes. Photogrammetry is also suitable for field monitoring of existing pipes. To take advantage of both technologies, the research team proposes to conduct a laboratory study to verify these two technologies and develop procedures for implementing them in future field monitoring of plastic pipes.

Language

• English

Project

• Status: Active
• Funding: $92,973.00
• Contract Numbers:

  RE-0897-01

  C2236

• Sponsor Organizations:

  Kansas Department of Transportation

  Eisenhower State Office Building
  700 SW Harrison Street
  Topeka, KS  United States  66603-3754
• Performing Organizations:

  University of Kansas Center for Research, Incorporated

  2291 Irving Hill Drive, Campus West
  Lawrence, KS  United States  66045
• Principal Investigators:

  Han, Jie

  Parsons, Robert

• Start Date: 20240201
• Expected Completion Date: 20260731
• Actual Completion Date: 0

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Creep; Drainage; Fiber optics; Plastic pipe; Polypropylene; Sensors
• Geographic Terms: Kansas
• Subject Areas: Highways; Maintenance and Preservation; Materials;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01976347
• Record Type: Research project
• Source Agency: Kansas Department of Transportation
• Contract Numbers: RE-0897-01, C2236
• Files: RIP, STATEDOT
• Created Date: Jan 15 2026 12:31PM