Epoxy Resin Carbon Black Smart Coating for Structural Health Monitoring of Petroleum Pipelines

Abstract

The service life of a structure can be maximized by intermittent monitoring of its integrity; every structure exposed to excitation will vibrate at its natural frequency, an aberration from this value is a sign of damage. Structural health monitoring (SHM) provides a platform for periodic and consistent assessment of the safety and reliability of structures. This study presents the use of epoxy resin / carbon black nanocomposite as a smart coating for the harvesting of vibration data of an excited petroleum pipeline. The laboratory rig used was modeled to reflect parameters from an existing petroleum Pipeline. The vibration data harvested was compared with the data obtained using a commercial vibration meter. The vibration data was analyzed using a MATLAB code developed by Thomas Irvine. The analyzed time history obtained using the nanocomposite shows maximum resistance amplitude at 35.92 Hz and a low resistance amplitude at 2.65 Hz representing the natural frequency of the pipeline.