Undergraduate Research at Virginia Tech

August 2009

Leaky Pipes Create a Research Opportunity for an Undergraduate

By Jackie Roberson, Lynchburg College first year student

Kara Dodson, a sophomore from Lynchburg, Va., has always liked to get her feet wet. She started out playing in creeks as a child and she continued to "play" in water through the end of her freshman year at Virginia Tech. The difference is that she is now researching pitting in copper pipes.

Copper pitting is a type of corrosion in pipes that creates pin-hole sized leaks that cause water damage in homes and businesses. In 2000, the Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission (WSSC), a Maryland water utility, asked Marc Edwards, the Charles Lunsford Professor of civil and environmental engineering at Virginia Tech, to begin researching the cause of the pitting that afflicted many customers in their system and around the U.S... Edwards recruited Virginia Tech undergraduates and graduates to help him.

In an interview for Chemical and Engineering News, Edwards said his research discovered that aluminum, chlorine, and a high pH level are all needed to create pitting in pipes. However, pitting is not a problem that is only harassing the people of Maryland, but one that Edwards has tracked to various places all over the country.

Dodson joined Edwards' research group in May 2009 and is now managing 12 water tanks that recreate the conditions in Edwards' research tanks.

Dodson's tanks have tubing and a small amount of copper piping with water continuously being pumped through them. The tanks are in sets of three, each set with a different variable. One set is a control, which has the same levels of chlorine and pH as the rest but with no additional chemicals. Dodson has added silica and phosphate separately to two sets in order to experiment with chemicals that will inhibit the corrosion. Although both chemicals provide protection against the pitting, phosphate has been proven to be the best inhibitor. The last set of tanks has no hardness in the water.

So far, Dodson has had pipes in two tanks develop pinhole leaks; she is now waiting for the third of the set to corrode.

Along with maintaining her water tanks, Dodson also cuts and photographs pipes, helps build tanks, and checks for pitting in pipes. When checking for the pitting, she looks for tubercles. A tubercle is made from a precipitate that is produced when the pipe starts to corrode. The precipitate builds up into an anthill shape that juts into the inside of a pipe. Tubercles allow pitting to accelerate by trapping a small amount of acidic water inside, giving the water a chance to eat away at the pipe nonstop.

When she began her research, Dodson was surprised that she understood the results that she was getting. She likes that she can "apply basic ideas to necessary research." Dodson says, "It has been easy to relate the concepts of my research work to what I've learned in freshman chemistry and engineering classes."

This experience has increased her desire to become an engineer and continue doing research.

Dodson will continue doing research with Edwards until the fall of her sophomore year. Afterwards, she will use the results of her research to write her honors thesis.

There are many memories that Dodson will look back on from this experience. She said that she enjoys learning from people who are older and more experienced than she is. She likes that the "lab is chill" and that everyone has a good time. Dodson likes that she is getting a chance to learn about her major and a possible career in a relaxed and open environment.

Dodson plans to go to graduate school and will do research for her master's degree. At the moment, she is only considering Virginia Tech but has not ruled out all others. She is not sure what she will do after graduate school, but the Peace Corp interests her, as well as continuing some type of research. She says that she is interested in traveling and helping people in other countries.

Dodson strongly encourages others who are interested in undergraduate research to take every opportunity as long as they have the time. She advises undergraduates to "stick to what you know and to what you like." She is using her research to learn about a possible career and she feels others should do the same. For undergraduate researchers of any major, Dodson stresses the ability to communicate what they are learning. She says that it will help them and others to better understand what they are doing.

At the recommendation of a friend, Dodson began her journey into the world of research. She has spent the past few months doing numerous things that she feels are necessary and will be helpful to others. Dodson is working to better herself by learning things that she would not have the opportunity to learn in a classroom. She is helping Edwards put a stop to a problem that has been complicating the lives of people states across the country for years. Dodson has been given confirmation, through her research, that she is in the right major and going into the right field. She enjoys her work and is grateful for the opportunity.

---

Marc Edwards is a MacArthur Fellow. In 2004, Time magazine dubbed Edwards “The Plumbing Professor” and featured him as one of the nation’s leading scientific innovators. Along with Virginia Tech civil and environmental engineering colleague Andrea Dietrich, Edwards is co-principal investigator on a $1.64 million National Science Foundation project aimed at solving widespread problems related to the effects of corrosion on drinking water quality and infrastructure.

Roberson wrote this article while an Upward Bound student intern with the Office of the Vice President for Research. More about Jackie Roberson.