Expansion Joint Active Monitoring

Team Members Joe Savino – Project Lead Mechanical Engineer Adam Remick – Customer Contact Electrical Engineer Andrew H – Scribe Mechanical Engineer

Problem Statement An expansion joint (EJ) connects pipes together in large systems to allow for the settling of a system. Garlock makes many styles of EJs to fit different size pipes and to hold up against different environmental factors. The current version is used in systems without any detection of imminent failure besides visual inspection. Many EJ’s are in hard to reach places and data acquisition is needed to monitor their status. The goal of this project is to create a sensor package that can monitor the integrity of an EJ it is installed in and recognize possible failure situations. An EJ with the installed sensor package should be able to withstand a prescribed amount of thermal, pressure, and mechanical cycles. The installed sensor package should be implemented with no significant loss to the integrity of the EJ.

Prior Project – PROJECT# Test Rig for Garlock Expansion Joints Has ability to measure both temperature and displacement past the point of EJ failure Garlock has ability to also test pressure at their facilities

Expansion Joints Bolted between pipes Made of Rubber, Fabric and Metals Sizes 2’’ to 130’’ Subjected to: Multiple working fluids, Pressures, Temperatures Contraction, Expansion Torsion, Vibration

Benchmarking No system in the market Difficult to measure composite/rubber degradation Multiple reasons for degradation Current method is regular preventative maintenance Visual Inspection

Our Goal Deliverables Sensor package for EJ’s 4in and larger Stretch Goals: Wireless Transmission of Data

Customer Requirements Monitor losses in integrity withstand working environment Easy data access applicable to many sizes and types compatible with existing hardware Alterations must not significantly affect the strength of the EJ Mountable on an EJ

Engineering Requirements rqmt. #Importance Source Engr. Requirement (metric)Unit of MeasureMarginal ValueIdeal Value S15InterviewMeasure Failure Criteria Binary 11 S25EJ SpecTemperature cycles to Fail cycles S35EJ SpecPressure cycles to fail cycles S45EJ Specmechanical cycles to fail cycles S52CR7Small Size in24 S64CR5Sensors connect to old system Binary11 S73InterviewEasily Mountable number of steps81

House of Quality

Project Schedule