Christophe Salles, Christoph Stamm, Hugo Hammar
Papers # 2014 Chicago
Traditional piping materials e.g. metals are becoming outdated due to their high weight, difficult handling and questionable performance over time. These are only a few of the reasons why plastics have rapidly become the preferred pipe material over the last few decades. PP-RCT (PolyPropylene Random Crystalline Temperature), the high performing PP-R pipe class, has over the last years established itself on the market, thus gaining access to further benefits both for installers and building owners.
Recently adopted in the EN ISO 15874 standard (Plastics piping systems for hot and cold water installations – Polypropylene, PP), PP-RCT facilitates an improved resistance to hydrostatic pressure, especially at elevated temperatures resulting in a beneficial pipe design with, for example, higher hydraulic capacity. These very capabilities of PP-RCT allow increases in both the performance and in the competitiveness for PP-R pipe producers and end-users, and in addition also offer the potential of entering into more demanding applications such as their use in skyrise buildings.
This paper will examine the PP-RCT material class and its capabilities, and showcase the high-profile case study of recently installed PP-RCT pipes at The King Abdullah Financial District (KAFD), a mega development launched in 2007 near King Fahad Road in the Asahafa area of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Including some 34 towers and ranging from 20 to 80 floors, the buildings of the KAFD include many world class skyscrapers with the very highest demands on their piping networks.
The job of the mains is both to transport the cooling water needed for the climate control systems as well as to serve for the hot water distribution, and planners are looking for an efficient pipe concept offering high performance and capacity with easy handling and installation. It is in these areas where PP-RCT has been established as the preferred solution and the KAFD development is a living proof of how new developments such as PP-RCT can stretch the use of plastics piping into new applications.
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