Damage or failure of a pipeline or a gas main can lead to a significant escape of gas, a loss of supply and incur a significant financial cost with considerable environmental damage and inconvenience to both gas customers and members of the public.

This project is a continuation of the NIA project Stent Bag (NIA_SGN0031) which focused on metallic pipe 4” and 6”, where this project Stent Bag 2 will be designed for use on PE gas pipe (90mm to 355mm diameter at pressure up to 4bar) and metallic gas pipe (up to 12” diameter at pressure up to 2bar).

The project aims to develop a method to ensure our Operatives and others affected can safely and remotely deal with the main failure whilst maintaining the gas supply to customers.

Objectives

The aim of this project is to design and field trial prototype pieces of equipment that will facilitate the repair of a damaged gas main whilst maintaining the supply of gas with focus on PE gas pipe (90mm to 355mm diameter at pressure up to 4bar) and metallic gas pipe (up to 12” diameter at pressure up to 2bar). The objectives of the project are:

• Produce concept designs to be evaluated
• Produce a report recommending which concepts are viable, highlighting and potential gap actions to move forward
• Produce initial prototypes and Testing equipment.
• Produce test programme to be evaluated and agreed to provide suitable evidence of equipment performance and usability
• Produce a report detailing the suitability of the 4 prototypes
• Produce the final field trial prototype and evaluate the equipment in a live environment
• Produce a final detailed report providing conclusions and recommendations for the equipment developed during the project.