Papers
Plastic Pipes Conference Association # 2014 Chicago
Riccardo Barbone, Georg Fischer
This short paper reviews the major milestones in the history of piping systems. A special emphasis is given to the sources and reasons for innovation. Starting with nature as a basis and discovering the basic laws of hydraulics, man has been driven to innovate by emulating nature. The political and social forces that drive innovation are reviewed within the context of piping systems. Future innovations in piping systems will come only with great vision outside the boundaries of what is the current state-of-the art.
The history and evolution of piping systems has been characterized by perpetual innovation. One could argue that using state of the art materials and technologies as a starting point, each subsequent generation of “inventors” benefited from preceding achievements. Was that sufficient? Or were there other motivating factors that drove innovation? As with natural evolution, the progress of piping systems often experienced discrete jumps in technological advancement. The powerful drive of necessity combined with a desire to challenge existing ways paved the way for experimentation and innovation and stepwise advances in materials and technology.
Related papers
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) : Drew Mueller, Peter Dyke
HDPE Pipe holds a dominant position in several markets in North America: natural gas distribution, oil patch, mining, landfill and geothermal. So why are polyethylene’s municipal water and wastewater market shares so much lower than these other industries? How has the polyethylene industry been successful in growing...
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) : Lei Wang, Guozhi Xu, Qiaoping Qiu, Weihua Lu, Yanwang Han
PP-R (random copolymerized polypropylene) has been widely used in hot and cold water systems. However, the standard PP-R pipes have the disadvantages of a large high-temperature thermal expansion coefficient, an insufficient notched impact strength, and a low temperature and pressure resistance. In this paper, a new...
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) : Ilija Radeljic, Ebbe Smith
HDPE pipe can be relatively easily scratched during the manipulation on the site, which is especially true for the marine pipelines. Installing the scratched marine pipe with the S bend method presents a risk and repair methods are usually performed. Currently, there is no standard defining the repair procedure, in...
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) : 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) : 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) : Amster Howard
Flowable fill is used for many applications, but mainly for pipe trench embedment and backfill. There are three ways that using flowable fill can be kind to the environment. Because flowable fill is self-leveling and has a strength greater than the native soil, the trench cross section can be minimized. This means...
Author(s) : Gerald Pinter, Johannes Wiener, Florian Arbeiter, Abhishek Tiwari, Otmar Kolednik
For pipe applications, catastrophic failure due to crack growth has to be prevented by all means. Techniques to develop new and even tougher pipe materials are explored in this contribution. The aim is to create a multi-layer architecture, that exhibits high toughness as well as damage tolerance towards sharp notches....
Author(s) : Greg Scoby, PE
This paper will detail the steps taken during adoption of HDPE for potable water systems improvements including material justification, creation of related specifications, investigation of available piping components, qualification of contractors and the construction/inspection of related systems. The City of...
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...
Author(s) : Eng. Grigorios Vigellis, Eng. Mohamed Hageb
Continuous development and innovation in the production of plastic pipes made by high density polyethylene (HDPE) has enabled the industry to produce much larger diameter systems than ever believed possible. The enablers for production of such large plastic pipes are three main pillars: continuous innovation...
Author(s) : Jennifer Ravereau, Jose Teixeira Pinto, Malena Bernabeu, Jose Alacid, Jean-Philippe Le Goff, Frederic Mohier, Benjamin Rabaud
Drinking water network fittings such as valves are made of brass materials known to be robust over long periods. Due to the gradual inflation metallic raw material costs, composite plastic valves have grown in market share. Uncertainties remain, however, on their long-term reliability. The aim of this work is to...
Author(s) : Suleyman Deveci, Nisha Preschilla, Sulistiyanto Nugroho, Birkan Eryigit
Carbon black (CB) has been used as a perfect and the cheapest solution to prevent photo degradation of polyethylene against UV light exposure. The effect of carbon black on the mechanical properties of polyethylene pipes was studied extensively, but only on well dispersed and distributed carbon black...
Author(s) : White G. Jee, Wes Long, Marcello Russo
In 2018, the North American HDPE pressure pipe market experienced unprecedented demand and growth especially in the region of the Permian basin in west Texas. 1 As aninnovative means of increasing HDPE pipe supply in this region, the first modular mobile extrusion plant was moved to Pecos, TX. Using custom designed...
Author(s) : C. Losher and P.V. Mercea
In the framework of the German Environmental Agency (UBA) requirements of plastic articles in contact with drinking water (KTW-BWGL-guideline), the compliance is verified by comparing so-called “expected concentrations at tap”, C tap , of substances contained in the plastics with specific limits in drinking water...
Members of the Association
