Taking polyethylene (PE) pipe to new heights ... and new diameters!

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) : 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) : 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) : 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 of...

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) : 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...