Frans Alferink
Papers # 2016 Berlin
PVC pipes for buried applications for water, sewer and gas, has developed an excellent track record. PVC is very inert, has a high resistance against permeation of soil contaminations and gas components and meanwhile has a long proven lifetime. Next to that, the lifecycle costs of buried PVC pipe systems are amongst the lowest due to its easy installation, low operational costs and the excellent ability to be recycled and used again in new pipes with another functional lifetime of at least another 50 years in all kind of applications.
This paper reports on the excellent experience with PVC pipes in various applications, varying from water supply, gas distribution to sewage collection and transport.
First applications were seen in Berlin, Germany around 1930 (Lit. 1) . A real boost in the use of this material was created in the middle fifties after a water company in The Netherlands started to use the material on large scale for water supply, followed by the use for gas distribution and for sewer applications as well. The paper will highlight on these developments and illustrate its track record. The use of PVC pipes for water supply is one of the main contributors to the excellent performance characteristics of the Dutch water industry, which is amongst the best in the world. Dutch water statistics are used to illustrate this further.
PVC Pipes were also the first flexible pipes used for sewer applications. Research in the performance and durability of buried flexible pipes, carried out by Wavin, KOMO, TEPPFA, TNO and others are referred too for this purpose. Also the first structured wall pipes were designed in PVC. The first type was called Wavihol (1978) followed by multilayer pipes, Ultra-rib and twin wall PVC pipes. The performance of those buried pipes will be briefly discussed as well.
It is concluded that PVC pipes for buried applications and being used now for more than 80 years, have an excellent track record. Developments over the years have resulted in even more robust and cost effective solutions in PVC in all buried pipe applications.
Over the years many improvements have been achieved in raw material and processing which resulted in products with excellent performance in various applications. In the eighties a start was made to recycle all kind of materials in order to minimize on one hand the waste and at the same time to lower the need for consuming more new resources from the earth. Now already a long and positive track record exists in recycling of PVC materials, contributing to a society moving towards a more cyclic economy in which materials are no longer wasted after use, but are prepared for their next function.
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) : Saleem Shakir
Unplasticized formulations based on Poly(Vinyl Chloride) (PVC) and Chlorinated Poly(Vinyl Chloride) (CPVC) resins offer technical solution to pressure piping systems that find extensive use in residential and industrial applications. Building upon the desirable properties of the vinyl monomer, the chlorine content of...
Author(s) : Anja Armani, Helmut Zanzinger
PE-pipes are used in applications at temperatures higher than 40°C and long service lives like drainage pipes in landfill basal lining systems, drainage pipes in tunnels with high cover heights, geothermal applications, power plant technology, mining, underground cable protection pipes for power lines for...
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) : 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) : Sjoerd Jansma, René Hermkens
More than 20,000 km of rigid PVC (or PVC-U) pipes are currently in use for the distribution of natural gas in the Netherlands. In this decade, the majority of these pipes will reach their initially specified lifespan of 50 years. In the light of a possible replacement surge, it is increasingly important to identify...
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) : Antonio Rodolfo Jr., Vanderley M. John
Unplasticised (U-PVC) and modified (M-PVC) pipes used in irrigation and infrastructure applications, outside diameter 326 mm, were evaluated according to various fracture mechanics methodologies, including fracture toughness (stress intensity factor KC and energy release rate GC, both at fracture), essential work of...
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...
Author(s) : M. Eckes & Dr. B. Baudrit, Dr. M. Troughton & D. Wylie, H. van Laak & J. Fritz
Unplasticized polyamide 12 (PA-U12) is increasingly being used in pipe applications, especially in the gas sector. However, the material behavior in the usual quality tests for pipe welds has not yet been thoroughly investigated. For this reason, two research institutes, worked in cooperation with a manufacturer of...
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...
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
