Pipelines carrying any type of fluid always have some leaks and it has been a challenge for the engineers to block the leak without spending too much in the process.
This new process that is inspired by the way our blood clots after an injury to stop the oozing blood. It uses small polymeric or elastomeric platelets that can stop the leak. The main advantage of the system is that it does not cost as much as other method do.
The idea came into the mind of Ian McEwan who is an engineer at the University of Aberdeen. While he was traveling in a train his hand got cut and he noticed that the blood flow was stopped when there was a clot. He thought of using the same technology in fixing the leaking pipelines.
These platelets are introduced in a pipeline and the fluid flow carries them along. The pressure forcing the liquid out of the leak causes the platelets to accumulate, clogging the space.
Leaks have been a major problem for all the pipelines and at an average 3,600 million liters of water are lost every day in England and Wales.
The researchers of this technology are also trying to integrate some RFID tags in the platelets so that the point of leak can also be determined.
Via: technologyreview
