Rehabilitating a Buckled Penstock Using CFRP

摘要

Most of the hydroelectric generating stations across North America are 50 to 100 years old. As a consequence, they are approaching or have exceeded their design life. Owners are thus faced with a financial dilemma: refurbish, replace or run to failure. One of the most significant assets in these generating stations are the penstocks. Unlike most other generating station assets, these pipelines are comparatively inaccessible and difficult to replace. Carbon fiber-reinforced polymer (CFRP) has been used to repair and strengthen pipelines, buildings and bridges for the past two decades. Timber, steel and concrete elements can be wrapped with FRP composite systems, in most cases as a strengthening element to a deteriorated structure. More recently, CFRP has been introduced as a repair alternative for failing pipe sections and joints, as well as for other civil structure applications requiring quick turnaround, low profile, and lightweight unidirectional tension members that can be installed with minimal impact to plant operations. As the global structural engineering industries have adopted this technology, so has the hydroelectric power industry.