The invention comprises an apparatus for testing mechanical materials, including, but not limited to, plates, welded pipes, metal shells, and the like. The apparatus may include an outer module; an inner module, wherein the inner module is affixed to a target mechanical material to be tested; and at least one main bolt, wherein the at least one main bolt physically contacts the outer module and the inner module. In some embodiments, the inner module may include a plurality of clasps for holding the target material. A mechanical force can be applied to the main bolt, which results in application of mechanical force to the target mechanical material for testing. Additionally, the apparatus does not require any hydraulic elements or electrical elements.

An in-situ bollard tester. The in-situ bollard tester may comprise: a frame, cable, and tensioner. The frame is preferably adapted to mount onto a pier or wharf and around a bollard to provide structural support for the cable and tensioner. The frame may comprise a rectangular frame, pair of hanging columns, pair of jacks and pair of legs. The pair of jacks are coupled near proximal corners of the rectangular frame and are vertically disposed. The hanging columns are coupled near distal corners of the rectangular frame. The pair of legs are coupled at the lower ends of the hanging columns and are disposed in a horizontal manner. The tensioner may be coupled above the rectangular frame. The cable may fasten to the bollard, and the tensioner may apply tension to the cable at various load angles in order to test the integrity of the bollard.

An embeddable seepage module capable of being embedded into an interface ring shear apparatus is disclosed, wherein: the seepage module includes an annular cylinder, a seepage pressure regulation system, a top plate and a bottom plate; the interface ring shear apparatus includes an upper shear box and a lower shear box; the annular cylinder, the top plate, the bottom plate, the upper shear box and the lower shear box form an internal pressure cavity and an external pressure cavity; the internal pressure cavity is able to realize the precise double control of the soil seepage pressure and water flow through the seepage pressure regulation system; the external pressure cavity is able to collect fine soil particles under pressure seepage. In the case of soil seepage-shear coupling, the seepage module is assembled firstly for seepage, and after completing the seepage, the external pressure cavity is removed for ring shear tests.

This internal pressure loading system includes an internal pressure loading device and an information processing device. The internal pressure loading device is set at an inner face of a pipe, and includes a load meter which detects the load applied to the inner face of the pipe and a displacement meter which detects the deformation amount of the pipe. When the internal pressure loading device is expanded so as to increase the load to be detected by the load meter, the width of the pipe at which the displacement meter is located is reduced. On the basis of the load detected by the load meter and the deformation amount detected by the displacement meter, the information processing device evaluates the remaining strength of the pipe.

A system and method for non-destructive, in situ, positive material identification of a pipe selects a plurality of test areas that are separated axially and circumferentially from one another and then polishes a portion of each test area. Within each polished area, a non-destructive test device is used to collect mechanical property data and another non-destructive test device is used to collect chemical property data. An overall mean for the mechanical property data, and for the chemical property data, is calculated using at least two data collection runs. The means are compared to a known material standard to determine, at a high level of confidence, ultimate yield strength and ultimate tensile strength within +/10%, a carbon percentage within +/25%, and a manganese percentage within +/20% of a known material standard.

A method for analyzing material wear in a hydrocarbon production environment is disclosed. The method includes the steps of preparing a sample of material to be disposed proximate the hydrocarbon production environment; selecting a placement location for the sample of material, wherein the placement location is in fluid communication with a fluid flow for which the impact of the fluid flow on the sample of material is to be tested; disposing the sample of material in the placement location for a pre-determined amount of time; allowing the sample of material to be exposed to the fluid flow; retrieving the sample of material from the placement location after the pre-determined amount of time has passed; and analyzing the sample of material for wear caused by the hydrocarbon production environment.

An in-situ bollard tester. The in-situ bollard tester may comprise: a frame, cable, and tensioner. The frame may mount onto a pier and around a bollard to provide structural support for the cable and tensioner. The frame may comprise a pair of base assemblies and a spreader bar. Each of the base assemblies may comprise a support frame and a cantilever arm, and the spreader bar may be coupled to the pair of base assemblies. A pair of jacks are coupled near proximal corners of the base assemblies. The tensioner may comprise a pair of hydraulic arms having first ends coupled near a proximal end of the base assemblies and a linear crossmember coupled to the second ends of the hydraulic arms. The cable may fasten to the bollard, and the tensioner may apply tension to the cable at various load angles in order to test the integrity of the bollard.

A method to determine a fatigue limit for a material. Form a test component including the material. Identify a resonant frequency of the component and an excitation frequency which causes the component to vibrate. Measure a response parameter of the component when excited at the excitation frequency. Test the component to determine its fatigue limit by sub-steps to: apply an excitation force to the component at the excitation frequency to cause vibration of the component; alter the applied excitation force at constant excitation frequency to maintain the response parameter constant; measure at least one of an input parameter and an output parameter; iterate the sub-steps to alter and measure until the first order, second order, or first and second order derivatives of the input parameter and/or output parameter exhibit a discontinuity. Repeat the steps for a different excitation frequency. The fatigue limit for the material includes all the identified discontinuities.

Disclosed herein is a concrete material comprising between 0.5% and 10% ferromagnetic fibres. Also disclosed herein is a method for measuring the strain state of a concrete material, the method comprising forming solid concrete containing between 0.5% and 10% ferromagnetic fibres in a random distribution throughout the concrete, applying an oscillating EM current to the concrete, and detecting the associated EM fields within the concrete. Also disclosed herein is the use of an oscillating EM current field to measure the strain state within a concrete material comprising between 0.5% and 10% ferromagnetic fibres.

A method for analyzing material wear in a hydrocarbon production environment is disclosed. The method includes the steps of preparing a sample of material to be disposed proximate the hydrocarbon production environment; selecting a placement location for the sample of material, wherein the placement location is in fluid communication with a fluid flow for which the impact of the fluid flow on the sample of material is to be tested; disposing the sample of material in the placement location for a pre-determined amount of time; allowing the sample of material to be exposed to the fluid flow; retrieving the sample of material from the placement location after the pre-determined amount of time has passed; and analyzing the sample of material for wear caused by the hydrocarbon production environment.