Ernest Lever
Papers # 2014 Chicago
Aldyl A piping systems are closing in on fifty years of service in North America. Several North American gas utilities are assessing the remaining lifetime expectancy of their Aldyl A piping systems and preparing replacement programs. GTI has been actively involved in multiple research efforts related to Aldyl A remaining lifetime and has also conducted many evaluations of field failures over the past years. This experience has culminated in a comprehensive causal risk model for vintage plastic piping systems, including Aldyl A, being developed. The model is being used to help utilities assess their vintage PE piping systems for risk hot spots and provide guidance on the sequencing of replacement programs. The principles on which the causal model has been built will be discussed together with the key risk factors in vintage PE piping systems. These factors include the condition of the inner wall of the pipe, material properties, installation quality, damage introduced during routine repairs and environmental factors such as ambient temperature, soil subsidence and impingement. How to properly identify, quantify and combine these multiple effects into a risk score that can guide replacement policy will be discussed.
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) : 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) : Chris Ampfer, Gene Palermo, Ernest & Oren Lever
This paper looks at the origin of the 10% allowable scratch depth rule for polyethylene (PE) pressure pipe developed in 1971 and research that has been performed over the years since its inception to determine the validity of this rule. The 10% rule has been used by natural gas pipeline operators since the 1970’s to...
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) : 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) : 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 of...
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) : 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) : 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) : 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) : Thomas R. Kratochvilla, Patrick Grünbeck, Christoph Bruckner, Raimund Eremiasch, Harald Wilhelm, Mario Vukelja
In the last decades pipe dimensions of extruded PE pipes have reached new orders of size. Today, PE pipes with outer diameters of up to DN/OD 3500 mm are produced and used for pressure pipe applications like seawater intake/discharge, outfall, sewage and industrial process piping systems. To test the long-term...
Author(s) : Lukas Travnicek, Pavel Hutar, Jan Poduska, Andreas Frank, Florian Arbeiter, Jaroslav Kucera, Jiri Sadilek, Gerald Pinter, Lubos Nahlik
The application of recycled material in pressure piping systems has been considered lately – it was suggested, that the recycled polyethylene could be used as a part of a multilayer pipe together with virgin material. This type of pressure pipes is not availableon the market yet, so their properties can be only...
Members of the Association
