New Ohio University
Center To House Industrial Pipe Research
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Contacts: Gayle Mitchell or Shad Sargand, Ohio University, (740) 593-2476;
Jim Goddard, Advanced Drainage Systems, Inc. (614) 538-5248.
ATHENS, Ohio (April 26, 2000) -- A new center at Ohio University will house research projects
on the design and durability of industrial pipes - used in everything from
agricultural irrigation to highway drainage systems. The studies will help
measure product performance for the nation's pipe manufacturers, most of
whom have headquarters or plants in Ohio.
The creation of the Center for Pipe and Underground Structures comes at a
time when industry is preparing for the possible introduction of new
federal regulations that would require the testing of thermoplastic pipes
used in road construction. The National Transportation and Safety Board has
proposed the regulations in response to the increased use of industrial
underground pipes, said Gayle Mitchell, director of the Ohio Research
Institute for Transportation and the Environment (ORITE), a coalition of
research initiatives at Ohio University that includes the new center.
"There is no laboratory or focus group nationally that could handle the
testing that would need to be done to meet these proposed standards,"
Mitchell said. "We have been working with pipes and related structures for
two decades and have the equipment and expertise needed to become a
national transportation product evaluation laboratory."
In addition to the applications already described, industrial pipes are
used for water and sewage systems as well as oil and gas lines.
Conventional pipes are made of many substances - metal, clay,
thermoplastic, concrete - all of which will be under study in the new center.
Several ongoing projects will find new homes in the center, which was
approved earlier this month by the university's Board of Trustees. Such
projects include a $500,000 study of thermoplastic pipe performance when
buried under 20 to 40 feet of dirt and gravel, which began last fall.
Researchers have buried 1,800 feet of pipe at a site near the Ohio
University Airport in Albany, complete with computers that measure the
pipes' response to the stress of deep burial. Researchers will monitor pipe
performance for several years, yielding data that could help manufacturers
design stronger, more durable pipes.
"It would be very difficult for industry to work with a private testing
company on a project such as this because of cost," said Jim Goddard, chief
engineer with Advanced Drainage Systems, Inc. The Columbus-based company is
the nation's largest manufacturer of polyethylene pipe and a collaborator
on this and other pipe research projects at Ohio University.
By working with a university research team, industry representatives gain
access to resources and expertise that often is unavailable in the private
sector, said Goddard, who has worked for more than a decade with Mitchell
and her colleague, Shad Sargand, assistant director of ORITE. "Researchers
at universities bring a broader, more objective perspective to the
research," Goddard added. "Gayle and Shad offer observations and findings
that come from a non-industry perspective."
Pipe-related research will be conducted at the airport site, a laboratory
on the Athens campus and a million-pound load facility on The Ridges
overlooking campus that allows scientists to apply heavy weight to pipes to
study their ability to withstand pressure of ground cover or heavy road
traffic.
Four civil engineering faculty and five to 10 graduate and undergraduate
students will work with the center on projects supported by the Ohio
Department of Transportation, Federal Highway Administration, private
industry in Ohio and around the country and other state transportation
departments.
Mitchell and Sargand are Russ Professors of Civil Engineering in the Russ
College of Engineering and Technology.
