e-Business, Does it Apply to Plastic Pipes?

Author(s) : Thomas R. Kratochvilla, Raimund Eremiasch, Christoph Bruckner

In the last years effort has been made to develop and standardise new accelerated test methods to evaluate PE 100-RC materials in short times in form of test bars. The two most important developments, the cracked round bar test (CRB test) and the strain hardening test (SH test) were published as final ISO standards in...

Author(s) : Michael Pluimer, Richard Thomas

Over the past decade, there have been several key research projects to evaluate the performance of corrugated HDPE pipes manufactured with post-consumer and postindustrial recycled materials for highway and railroad drainage applications. Three of these projects were recently completed and published (NCHRP Project...

Author(s) : Richard St-Aubin, Dr. Thomas O’Rourke, Dr. Brad Wham, Blake Berger

Molecularly oriented polyvinyl chloride (PVC-O) pipe has been found to withstand large ground deformation during seismic events without damage. The properties of PVC-O pipe that support this performance have been investigated in a multi-year testing program undertaken at the Geotechnical Lifelines Large Scale Testing...

Author(s) : Andreas Frank, Isabelle J. Berger, Mario Messiha, Carl-Gustaf Ek, Norbert Schuler, Jens-Martin Storheil, Erwin Mayrbäurl, Steve Heeley, Frank Krause, Lodewijk Niemöller, Philippe Gabriëls, Yogesh S. Deshmukh, Florian Arbeiter, Thomas Koch, Gerald Pinter

In order to improve the circular economy of polymers in terms of sustainability and reduced carbon footprint, the increased use of recyclates has become a topic of major importance. Due to their long design lifetimes, pipe applications represent an excellent opportunity to create added value to non-virgin polymers. In...

Author(s) : Lonnie Corley, Dane Chang, Harvey Svetlik, Matt Brandes, Thomas Musto, Frank Schaaf, David Fink

This paper presents a brief overview of a challenging project at the Callaway Nuclear Power Plant where HDPE was utilized to replace degraded steel buried piping in a Safety Related water system. Callaway was the first Nuclear Power plant to obtain NRC approval and successfully place the HDPE piping system into...

Author(s) : Francis Reny Costa, Anh Tuan Tran, Jeroen Oderkerk, Thomas Hjertberg, Christophe Salles, Ulf W. Gedde, Benjamin Rabaud, Flavia Zraick

The premature failure of polyethylene pipes in contact with high chlorine and chlorine dioxide, used as residual disinfectants in drinking water distribution, remains an area of concern for water companies particularly in regions where temperatures are regularly or seasonally high. Multiple factors can amplify the...

Author(s) : Thomas C. Pedersen, Robert R. Kwapisz

This paper presents rheological data on simple rigid PVC compositions lubricated paraffin wax, calcium stearate, and oxidized polyethylene wax. These three materials comprise the most widely used lubricant system for rigid PVC in North America. The influence of certain paraffin wax characteristics will be discussed....

Author(s) : Stefan Kremling, Thomas Hochrein, Peter Heidemeyer

In plastics industry, the use of terahertz technology opens up opportunities for novel non-destructive and contactless testing applications. For example, the thickness of individual layers of a foamed multilayered plastic pipe can be monitored contactless and continuously during the extrusion process. Furthermore,...

Author(s) : Michael Pluimer, Rick Thomas

A new test method was developed to evaluate the stress crack resistance of HDPE materials containing recycled content. The method involves testing un-notched specimens in an elevated temperature bath under a specified stress. The new test method was published in March of 2016 as ASTM F3181, Standard Test Method for...

Author(s) : Tomas Helenius, Karin Jacobson, Thomas Blomfeldt

Polyethylene is the leading material for new installation of drinking water pipes in Sweden. The material is recognized by the market as a flexible, light weight and an inexpensive solution. The material is ideal for water piping, however the lifetime is only guaranteed for 50 years. This is a problematic limitation...

Author(s) : Bill R. Vanhoose, Jarrett A. Nelson, Christa K. McNish, Richard W. Thomas

The Stepped Isothermal Method (SIM) is a form of Time-Temperature Superpositioning (TTS) that involves measuring the creep rate of a sample while it is subjected to a series of isothermal temperature steps. The accelerated temperature results can then be shifted back to room temperature to produce a master-curve....

Author(s) : Andreas Frank, Anita Redhead, Thomas Kratochvilla, Heinz Dragaun, Gerald Pinter

Key words : Polyethylene, pipe, test method, lifetime, slow crack growth For a qualitative characterization of the slow crack growth resistance of polyethylene pipe grades several test methods are available. Especially for modern pipe grades these test methods exceed practical time frames and new acceleration methods...

Author(s) : Francis R. Costa, Christophe Salles, Anh Tuan Tran, Jeroen Oderkerk and Thomas Hjertberg

Over the years polyethylene has gained preference as the material of choice for water distribution pipes due to its long successful track record offering comparatively lower frequency of leakage, corrosion resistance, flexibility, light weight, easy installation, etc. However, in recent years, there have been growing...

Author(s) : Steven Folkman, Ammon Sorensen, Thomas Fronk

During 2011 Utah State University conducted a survey of utilities across the USA and Canada to obtain data on water main failures of municipal and private water supply systems. A total of 1,051 surveys were distributed and there were 188 respondents. The total length of pipe covered by the survey is 189,264 km...

Author(s) : Steven L. Folkman, A. P. Moser, Thomas Fronk

Manufacturers of large diameter PVC pipe place a mark on the spigot of the pipe to indicate the proper insertion depth into the adjoining bell during installation. If proper installation procedures are followed, inserting the spigot into the bell does not create significant stresses in the pipe. Additionally, small...

Author(s) : Christian Tischler, Markus Haager, Thomas R. Kratochvilla, Heinz Muschik, Heinz Dragaun

The static test method of the Notched Ring Test (NRT) is compared with a fatigue testing method of Cracked Round Bar (CRB). Both methods are candidates for the classification of polyethylene (PE) materials with high resistance against Slow Crack Growth (SCG). In this paper tests of two PE 100 and two PE 100-RC...

Author(s) : Richard Thomas and David Cuttino

The BFF test is an un-notched, constant load, stress crack test performed at elevated temperatures (70 or 80ºC) in deionized water. The test is a combination of the BAM test, developed in Germany in the early 1990s, the Florida Department of Transportation protocol for 100 year service lifetimes, and uses a dumb bell...

Author(s) : R.Thomas

The Stepped Isothermal Method (SIM) is a special form of Time-Temperature-Superposition (TTS) that has been used to predict long-term creep behavior from very short-term tests (~ 24 hours). A single test specimen undergoes a series of short-term (10,000 seconds) creep tests, each separated by 7ºC. At the end of the...

Author(s) : Young, Thomas, Marshall

Within the Water Industry in England and Wales, there is an estimated length of 295,000 km of water main, much of which was laid in unlined cast iron prior to 1940. Subsequently, asbestos cement, UPVC and cement lined cast/ductile iron has been uscd. It is kn-that a substantial number of...

Author(s) : Thomas

This paper describes the application of uPVC pipe on a large irrigation contract. The project is known as the Sadova Corabia Irrigation System and is located in south-west Romania. It is the largest technically advanced irrigation scheme to be undertaken anywhere in the world. Taylor Woodrow International Limited are...