Papers
Plastic Pipes Conference Association # 2016 Berlin
Ian Aldridge, Declan Robinson, Dave Smart, Chris Reed, Martyn, Greig, Trevor Stafford, David Christie-Lowe, Alec Erskine
For the UK polyethylene (PE) gas pipe network, the first installations now exceed 40 years in the ground, with an original design life of 50 years. It was thus timely to review the current condition and performance history of these first generation PE materials. A major 4 year project was started in 2010 to examine the condition of the buried PE gas pipe network. Aged pipe, fittings and fusion joints, manufactured from the first generation PE materials, were identified and extracted from service, together with pipe and joints recovered from maintenance activities. Over 1,000 aged pipe and fitting components were obtained, and 291 samples were subjected to chemical, physical, mechanical and hydrostatic tests. The primary output has been a snap-shot of the performance of the UK PE gas distribution system and a strategy for the longterm management of PE pipe assets.
For the UK polyethylene (PE) gas pipe network, the first installations now exceed 40 years in the ground, with an original design life of 50 years. It was thus timely to review the current condition and performance history of these first generation PE materials. A major 4 year project was started in 2010 to examine the condition of the buried PE gas pipe network. The project was funded by the two largest gas supply networks in the UK, National Grid Gas and Scottish and Southern Gas Networks, with encouragement by OFGEM, the UK energy networks regulator.
Aged pipe, fittings and fusion joints, manufactured from the first generation PE materials, were identified and extracted from service, together with pipe and joints recovered from maintenance activities. Over 1,000 aged pipe and fitting components were obtained, and 291 samples were subjected to chemical, physical, mechanical tests and 20C and 80C pressure tests. The resulting database provided a means of analysing in-service performance and correlating this with the property variations arising from the development of PE resin grades. An extensive “Timeline Database” was constructed, to record the materials properties and installation technologies as milestones in a referenced searchable resource.
For the majority of first generation PE materials used in the network, little or no evidence of significant deterioration was found. The primary output has been a snapshot of the performance of the UK PE distribution system and a strategy for the long-term management of PE pipe assets.
Related papers
Author(s) : A. Marangoni
The quality of infrastructures is a key driver for maximizing the performance of the utilities networks and minimizing the environmental impacts associated with their operation. The water and sewer pipes are key network elements to guarantee a satisfactory service to the citizens. Their end-of-life management is an...
Author(s) : Li, Yanjun, Xiang, Aimin, Xu, HaiyunBeijing, Xie, Jianling, Ho, Kinman, Xu, HaiyunBeijing
It is necessary to evaluate the impact resistance of plastics pipes as they have the potential to be damaged by hitting or colliding during storage, transportation and installation. As a well-established test method, the Charpy impact strength of unnotched test pieces cut from thermoplastics pipes is determined...
Author(s) : A. Taraiya, P. Degenhart, M. Soliman, M. Boerakker, R. Handstanger, R. Kleppinger
Since the introduction of polyolefins for pressure pipes, continuous improvements have been made to meet ever-higher demands on their performance and to expand their application window beyond their original scope, mostly based on new resin formulations. Today, we also continue to push the limit to provide better...
Author(s) : Derek Muckle
A technical program has been undertaken to provide evidence on the suitability of polyethylene pipe and fitting systems for the distribution of hydrogen fuel gas. The underlying principle has been to evaluate material in the form of a pipe and to consider the performance of the pipe and of the welded jointing systems...
Author(s) : Donald Swen, Leanne Pichay, Nicholas Vallin, Alice Wu, Jim Johnston
In the rural commune of Ait Bayoud, Morocco, two of the most remote villages in the area, Ilguiloda and Izgouaren, live with water scarcity. To meet their water needs, women and children walk several kilometers to the nearest spring each day, often multiple times a day. Consequently, children cannot attend school...
Author(s) : Andreas Moerman, Flip van der Valk, Mirjam Blokker KWR, Tjakko Haaijer, Jan Vreeburg,
Drinking water companies with ageing networks are facing vast amounts of drinking water network reconstructions during the coming decades. This development coincides with the energy transition, which puts pressure on the available space underground. These external drivers give drinking water companies an opportunity...
Author(s) : Peter Hubbard, Linqing Luo, Andrew Yeskoo, Kenichi Soga, Krista (Moita) Araica, Gus Cicala, Marshall McLeod
Seismically active faults pose a risk to buried water pipelines that can be complicated to quantify. Fault type, slip rate, pipeline geometry, and soil conditions all factor into a complex soil-pipeline interaction. For critical pipelines that cross faults, high-density polyethylene (HDPE) has become an attractive...
Author(s) : Anders Andtbacka, Peter Sejersen
In the late nineties a study of the behavior of buried thermoplastics pipes was carried out. The project had input and participants from both the plastic pipe industry as well as from external organizations. Six external leading experts in the field of pipeline design, not necessarily plastics pipes design, have been...
Author(s) : Dominique GUEUGNAUT, Pascal AUSSANT, Romuald BOUAFFRE, Myriam BECHROURI
Concerns regarding the environment and sustainable development have revived interest in the reprocessing and re-use of polymer materials from manufactured objects that have reached the end of their operating life. Within this framework, formal professional agreements have been put in place at global level under the...
Author(s) : Paul J. Freudenthaler, Joerg Fischer, Mathias Eder, Reinhold W. Lang
For controlled water disinfection, typically chlorine is used and preliminary studies demonstrate its aging and crack growth acceleration effects on polyolefin pipe materials [1, 2]. Although the use of recycled plastics is not prohibited in some ISO standards for polyolefin piping systems [3–5], only small amounts...
Author(s) : Mike Troughton, Amir Khamsehnezhad, Changyi Yu
When butt fusion welding polyethylene (PE) pipes in the field, it is often specified that the pipes must undergo fusibility testing in all combinations of suppliers, diameters and thicknesses before being fused in production. This is a very onerous and expensive task, but must be carried out to ensure that the PE...
Author(s) : Shuhei Nishida, Shintaro Iwasaki, Hidefumi Yamanaka, Takahiro Kasatani
Polyethylene pipelines have been used for natural gas service applications for over 40 years in Japan. It is thought that they will continue to be used widely for many years. Therefore, it is important to confirm the conditions of the existing pipelines being used for the long term. In this study, polyethylene pipes...
Author(s) : James F. Mason, Akshay Ponda, Hermann van Laak, Buc Slay
The effects of liquid hydrocarbons on long term strength of pipe grade thermoplastic resins is an important consideration when designing pressure pipe for use in the oil and gas industry. There is an extensive body of work going back several decades descri bing these effects for pipe grade polyethylenes, and all...
Author(s) : Ernst van der Stok
For PE 100-RC, two tests are still under development for pipes: the point load test (PLT) and the accelerated notch pipe test (aNPT). The PLT was developed by a project group consisting of manufacturers and end users. The PLT determines the resistance to point loads as they can occur in practice. An earlier study...
Author(s) : S. Nestelberger, J. Cheng
The Point Load Test (PLT) [ 1, 2] was designed to simulate the SCG (slow crack growth) failure initiated by a rock pressing into the exterior wall of a polymer pipe. Today’s PE materials sustain long PLT testing times, due to its high SCG resistance design. Consequently, an accelerated “PLT+” with the support...
Author(s) : Dr. Holger Brüning, Serge Hascoët, Yann Delanne, Didier Nozahic, Jawdat Mansour, José Santana
RTE operates, maintains and develops the French electricity network, including the High and very High Voltage cable lines. Their network is the largest in Europe and includes over 6400 km of underground HV links operated in 2018. The company is modernizing and developing its network by investing 1.5 billion euros per...
Author(s) : Sultan Alkendi, Mohamed Jaber, Ahmed Atef Helal
The current push to reduce governmental energy subsidies has moved the need to adapt utility gas distribution networks toward the top of Middle Eastern governmental near-term agendas. Egypt is at the forefront of this push towards gasification. The United Arab Emirates has started on the path towards gasification...
Author(s) : Prashant Nikhade, Farraj Tashman
In the Middle East and India, PE pipes have expanded their applications in a big way for water supply, industrial effluents, corrosive chemical transportation, slurry transportation, city gas distribution networks and agriculture irrigation purposes over ductile iron, cast iron and other conventional pipes. PE...
Author(s) : Stephan Kneck, Henrik Iskov
It has become ever clearer that the resources of natural gas are an energy source, which will be less important in the future due to limitations in use of natural reserves. In order to prepare for the future the gas industry is looking at the alternative fuel gases, one such fuel gas is hydrogen. In order to prepare...
Author(s) : Christian Schalich
Plastic pipes for infrastructure and building applications are precisely specified with regards to wall thickness and diameter. Pipe manufacturers use different measuring methods in order to ensure the required dimensional accuracy and maintain a constant high quality. This paper introduces a measuring system based on...
Members of the Association
