SPS completes A4i Innovate UK Project with NPL for ground-breaking real time pipeline integrity monitoring technology of pipeline bending

SPS, in collaboration with National Physical Laboratory (NPL) and advisory support from the University of Huddersfield on behalf of the Newton Gateway to Mathematics, University of Cambridge, has successfully completed the Analysis for Innovators (A4I) project on digital integrity monitoring of pipeline bending. The project, identified by Innovate UK as a key project aligned with the UK Government’s Innovation Strategy, focused on cutting-edge distributed sensing technology and the use of helically wound optical fibre responses to detect pipeline movement and local deformations.

The project provided a better understanding of how the optical fibre helix in MASiP pipe responds to bending using finite element modelling validated by reduced-scale laboratory tests at NPL and full-scale tests at SPS trial site using 12 inch diameter test pipe at 6 m length and internal pressure. The results provide a physics-based modelling approach to be implemented in the SPS full-scale pipeline integrity monitoring dashboard after further full-scale testing.

This successful project outcome highlights the importance of collaborative efforts in achieving innovative solutions to improve sustainable infrastructure development for the introduction of hydrogen pipelines and support the UK government’s innovation strategy.