InfinitPipe (green pipe) can be built with aerospace materials

Mo Ehsani, Professor Emeritus of Civil Engineering at the University of Arizona, has designed a new, lightweight underground pipe he says could transform the pipeline construction industry.


The breakthrough did not happen overnight. In the late 1980s, Ehsani and Hamid Saadatmanesh, both of the UA department of civil engineering and engineering mechanics, pioneered research into repairing and retrofitting bridges and buildings using fiber-reinforced polymers, so the technology is well established.

"There's a lot of history on these materials," Ehsani said, which has enabled him to refine the pipe manufacturing process to use smaller amounts of better quality materials. "Because we're using our materials in a smart manner, we can afford to use the higher end material," Ehsani said. "So instead of cheaper glass fabric, we use carbon. Instead of polyester resin, we use epoxy. Because we don't have a solid core, we can afford to put the expensive material on the skin."

If Ehsani's concept for mobile pipe manufacture using lightweight components takes off, he envisions an industry freed from the shackles of heavy industrial plant. "As a business model, a company that wants to get into pipeline manufacturing with one of these mobile trucks could have a factory anywhere in the world," he said. "You could be doing a job in Hawaii today and next week be working in Panama. You're no longer limited by where your factory is."

University of Arizona