Sunwoong Choi, Tom Marti
Papers # 2016 Berlin
Small scale, steady state (S4) testing per ISO 13477 is a lab-based procedure to determine the critical pressure at which a fracture will propagate following initiation in a given pipe material filled with a given test medium. The S4 test was originally developed for the natural gas industry using air as the test medium. Recent industry discussions have included S4 testing for water applications as well.
Until now, no S4 testing with water had been conducted on AWWA C900 PVC pipe using the S4 test method as prescribed in ISO 13477. Some testing in the 1990’s on PVC pipe extruded in the UK had been done, however, the differences in the AWWA C900 pipe of a more current vintage along with the testing procedures made it impossible to make any direct correlation of the test results. The test set up included a data acquisition system to measure crack speed and decompression wave speed during an S4 test. The test results demonstrate substantial differences between AWWA C900 PVC pipe currently manufactured in North America versus the PVC pipe on which testing had been performed in the UK during the 1990’s. This paper discusses the test methodology and ISO 13477 compliant test results for water in PVC pressure pipe manufactured to the AWWA C900 standard commonly used throughout North America .
