Installation of heating pipelines by shallow drilling : feasibility of the E-power method

The so called E-Power Pipe technique is a trenchless method which was developed for the installation of underground cables in sleeve pipes. This trenchless technique for shallow drilling and pipeline installation can be used for the installation of large diameters transport heating pipelines. Modification of the technique is necessary to enlarge the borehole to the required size. The use of a reamer head or micro tunnelling machine in front of the product heating pipeline is a promising modification. Tests carried out to measure the friction in between the drill grout and the pipelines indicate a certain frictional behavior of the drill grout. The magnitude of the friction cannot be determined yet in a reliable way, since the boundary conditions of the tests were not defined sufficiently. The calculation of the installation load and the assessment of the load on the different parts of the heating pipeline shows that the installation loads allow installation of long pipeline section.