Underground Construction - October 2019 - 36

2019 CAPABILITIES GUIDE
SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION

Trenchless Integrity Pipeline System (TIPS)
ED DOUZIECH, TIPS Inventor, Vice President, General Manager, CCI Inc.

OVERVIEW

Recent advancements in fiber-optic technology
have greatly enhanced the pipeline operator's ability
to detect potential leaks and monitor pipeline strain.
However, the technical Achilles heel of fibre-optics
is maintaining the integrity of the fragile cable itself;
particularly during trenchless and other hazardous
installations. To address this issue, CCI Inc. has developed and implemented TIPS (Trenchless Integrity
Pipeline System). TIPS allow the fiber-optic cable
to be attached to the product pipeline without
damaging the pipeline coating or the integrity of the
fiber-optic cable.

INTRODUCTION

Pipelines are dependable, efficient, and secure
means of transporting energy products and are also
a critical part of the world energy infrastructure.
However, damage to the pipeline by external forces
such as third-party damage, slope movement or
hydrological forces can still result in leaks. These
continued events are a clear sign of a need to enhance the monitoring capabilities within the pipeline
industry. Point monitoring (classical pipeline integrity
monitoring technology) require high investments
of power and communication facilities due to the
distributive nature of this type of monitoring. Visual
surveillance is primarily a reactive process to surface
disturbances along the pipeline and can be costly
and have a low resolution. Additionally, these existing methods do not allow for complete coverage
and/or real time monitoring along the entire pipeline route. It is also apparent that if events leading up
to possible pipeline damage can be detected or pipe
integrity quantified, intervention can correct any
issue prior to the actual leak occurring.

FIBER-OPTIC TECHNOLOGY

The evolution of fiber-optic sensing technologies
allows the industry to mitigate this monitoring
void. All pipelines exhibit an acoustic or vibration
signature when operating. Fiber-optic monitoring
is currently able to detect temperatures, strain,
vibration and sound with high location accuracy
and absolute resolution. The subtle changes in the
"tone" can be compared to a based line to provide
insights into the pipeline performance. With proper
analysis, the smallest event can be detected, location determined, and severity estimated. Fiber-optics require no electrical power (along the cable),
are non-conductive, intrinsically safe, immune to
ionizing radiation/electrical interference, emit no
signals and interfere with nothing.
Fiber-optic cable installations are generally
facilitated in two discrete approaches - cables that

OCTOBER 2019 | UConOnline.com

are directly buried in the trench with the fiber-optic
cable already installed (pre-loaded) or cables that
are blown into a duct conduit (compressed air or
fluid) after the duct or conduit is installed. Most
direct burial cables (pre-loaded) deployed today
contain corrugated steel armor surrounding the
core with a polymer jacket over the armor. Most
conduit installed cables are polymer jacketed only.
However, the technical Achilles heel of the
fiber-optic system is the cable itself. The cable is
extremely fragile and fiber-optic cable designs must
aim to give the best possible protection to the fiber
itself from any external (or construction) damage
or influence. It is necessary to shield the fiber from
external humidity, side pressures, crushing and
longitudinal strains. While existing fiber-optic cable
designs provide good protection to these influences
for typical communication purposes, installation of
these cables within a pipeline environment (for monitoring purposes) is less effective and in some cases,
unreliable. Also, when optical fibers are used for strain
sensing, the optical fiber should be permanently
bonded to the pipeline over the whole target length.
Given the extreme conditions and environments
that pipelines are installed throughout the world,
these cable installation requirements have not been
effectively achieved. Fiber-optic cables, currently installed within pipelines, have been simply laid in the
ditch (ditch lay) or "strapped" to the pipeline at intervals. Both ditch-lay and strapped fiber-optic lines
will suffer reduced sensitivity, in one case (ditch-lay)
not being able to directly monitor stain and suffer
a reduced temperature differential, or in the other
(strapped) have a very limited strain sensitivity.

CHALLENGES IN
FIBER-OPTIC INSTALLATION

In 2017, a major North American oil and gas operator engaged CCI Inc. (CCI) to solve the most difficult
issue within its pipeline design criteria; successfully
installing a fiber-optic system within trenchless
portions of its pipeline project. The goal of CCI's
scope of work on this project was to engineer a
solution to reduce the risk of fiber-optic damage,
while improving its sensitivity.
As part of this pipeline project scope, a continuous fiber-optic leak detection system was to be
installed by a third-party provider. Pursuant to this
leak detection requirement, a conduit was to be installed alongside the product pipeline to facilitate the
subsequent installation of the third-party fiber-optic
detection line. Along the length of the pipeline were
numerous major and minor trenchless crossings. As
a mitigation to high failure rates of existing fiber-optic

systems in trenchless applications, CCI evaluated all
existing leak detection conduit designs and concluded that existing fiber-optic conduit applications were
not applicable for the trenchless portions within the
projects scope, likely to fail during trenchless installations (and/or after installation when no mitigation is
possible), and likely increase the risk of the trenchless
pipe installation. This was due to the unique and
extremely harsh construction environments that
HDD (and other trenchless applications) need to
overcome during the pipe installation.
Several existing systems are available to install
fiber-optics into a trenchless application, mainly
within Horizontal Directional Drilling (HDD). CCI
evaluated these systems and applications with a
focus on the installation and subsequent operational
success. One key fact that all trenchless fiber-optic
installations share was that in all evaluated cases,
the process included installing a separate conduit(s)
("String", HDPE or similar) that was attached to
the lead section of the pipeline and the remaining conduit would "float" loosely (or in some
cases, strapped at a specific frequency) within the
borehole. In these cases, the conduit is unlikely to
withstand a single point load strain in amounts generally associated with trenchless installs. Additionally,
banding of the conduit to the pipeline (straps, tape
or wraps) tend to add additional risk to the installation and are prone to failure. If the fiber conduit fails
during trenchless installation, there is no reasonable
mitigation strategy to repair or replace the conduit
after pipe installation. It was concluded that neither
the available fiber-optic conduit products, nor banding of the available conduit products, are likely to
survive the forecasted trenchless installation forces.
Any improvement to existing fiber-optic conduit
systems within trenchless installations must focus
on a product that is fully attached (monolithically
bonded) to the target product line in such a way that
these failure modes are significantly reduced. It is
also noted that the protective coating of the product
pipeline could not be compromised with the addition of the fiber-optic conduit and its bonding.
In support of this pipeline project, CCI pursued
engineering, development and execution of a
trenchless fiber-optic system. The Trenchless Integrity
Pipeline System (TIPS™), was invented by CCI to
be far superior to existing fiber-optic conduits and
is purposely engineered for trenchless and difficult
applications. The primary objective of the TIPS is
to increase the success of trenchless fiber-optic
installations (including conventional installs), improve
sensitivity, and expand capabilities for all fiber-optic
cables while not imposing additional risk to the
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Underground Construction - October 2019

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