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Technology Demonstration: Acoustic Condition Assessment of Wastewater Collection Systems
Citation:
Murray, D. J., G. Skipper, J. Weimer, AND S. Donovan. Technology Demonstration: Acoustic Condition Assessment of Wastewater Collection Systems. Presented at Collection Systems 2014: Collection on the Chesapeake, Baltimore, MD, March 11 - 14, 2014.
Impact/Purpose:
To present the findings from a demonstration project of two acoustic sewer inspection technologies
Description:
The overall objective of this demonstration project was to evaluate technologies that are designed for rapid deployment using portable equipment that can result in significant cost-savings to wastewater utilities. Smaller diameter pipes (i.e., less than 12-inch diameter) are generally known to contribute to over 90 percent of the sewer main backups reported in a typical system; therefore, this study focused on smaller diameter pipes for evaluating the effectiveness of the two acoustic inspection technologies. The Metropolitan Sewer District of Greater Cincinnati (MSDGC) has over 3,000 miles of sewers and approximately 600 miles of those are “off-road” sewers. These off road sewers are typically inspected every 8 – 10 years and it is labor intensive, difficult, and expensive to inspect and clean these sewers. In addition to these off-road sewers, MSDGC also inspects and cleans on-road sewers on a proactive basis. In order to fully evaluate these technologies, both off-road and on-road sewer conditions were assessed during this project. The sewers in the following three Cincinnati-area locations were assessed as part of this technology demonstration project: • Hunt Road – off-road sewers • Galia Drive – off-road sewers • Greenhills – on-road sewers These locations include a range of pipe sizes and a variety of pipe materials and were scheduled for cleaning and inspection around the time of this technology demonstration project. The selection of these study area locations provided an opportunity to evaluate the acoustic technologies, both before and after cleaning. This project was a collaboration between the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and MSDGC. The study approach for demonstrating the two acoustical inspection technologies was developed by MSDGC, EPA and technical consultants to the project. Two innovative acoustic inspection technologies and two established, camera-based inspection technologies, all listed below, were used in this demonstration project. • InfoSense, Inc., Sewer Line – Rapid Assessment Tool (SL-RAT™) • University of Bradford, UK, SewerBatt™ • Pan-Tilt-Zooming pole-mounted camera • High-definition (HD) digital scanning closed-circuit television (CCTV) by Panaramo Overall, a total of 80 to 100 sewer segments at the three locations were inspected. The Hunt Road and Galia Drive sewer locations are considered off-road. The Greenhills sewer location is considered on-road. This presentation will discuss the findings of this technology demonstration project. Information on each of the acoustic inspection technologies (SL-RAT & SewerBatt) will be presented. Inspection results from the two acoustic technologies will be presented, along with findings from the camera-based technologies.
