21st Century Piping

by
Craig Fisher, P.E.
Technical Director
for the
Uni-Bell PVC Pipe Association

The title of my first paper for this conference is “Evolution of PVC Pipe Markets in the
US and Other Regions.” That paper documents the tremendous popularity of plastic pipe
and the decades-long-shift from traditional materials to plastic for piping infrastructure.

Why has this shift occurred? What is driving this metamorphosis of the pipe industry?

One answer is corrosion. Another is joint integrity. Eliminating corrosion as a relentless

force responsible for the pre-mature death of piping infrastructure is a major reason for
plastic pipe’s rise from obscurity to dominance. Another is the quality of the joint, along
with the new and innovative installation options it offers. Other items on the list are ease
of installation, greater flexibility, and fantastic hydraulics. These performance
advantages for the two most popular plastic piping options - PVC and HDPE - are
reviewed.

I. Corrosion

Estimates of the cost of corrosion in the US are staggering. A US Federal Highway

Administration (FHWA) [1] study examined 26 industrial sectors and determined
corrosion costs over a two-year period. The total direct cost of corrosion was $276
billion per year, or 3.1 percent of the US gross domestic product (GDP). According to
FHWA’s Office of Infrastructure Research and Development Director, Paul Teng,
“Indirect costs to the user (society costs) are conservatively estimated to be equal to the
direct costs.” Indirect costs are those associated with lost productivity due to outages,
delays, failures, and associated litigation costs.

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Of the industrial sectors studied, the water and wastewater utility sector had the largest
direct costs from corrosion - 36 billion dollars per year. The costs for this sector are
further broken down in Figure 1.

Figure 1: Corrosion Costs for Water and Wastewater Utilities Totaled $36 billion / year

For water utilities, external corrosion is the main issue. For wastewater utilities, it is
internal corrosion. Figure 2 shows the mechanism by which hydrogen sulfide (sewer gas)
condenses into sulfuric acid at the crown of the pipe.

Sulfuric
Acid

Figure 2: Chemistry for the Creation of Sulfuric Acid from Sewer Gas

The aggressive internal environment for sanitary sewer pipes detailed in Figure 2 is quite
inhospitable to metallic and concrete products. Prior to the introduction of plastic pipe,
clay was the leading sanitary sewer piping material because of its chemical resistance to
domestic and industrial sewage.

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II. System Integrity

Figure 3: Integrity Issues for Buried Sanitary Sewers

The problem wastewater utility owners had with clay pipe was not corrosion; it was
system integrity. Systems like the ones shown in Figure 3 are much more costly to
operate. Besides the obvious maintenance issues, the utility also has to treat both the
sewage and the groundwater that enters these leaky system. Moreover, during a heavy
rain, the treatment plant can become overloaded from all the rainwater that has infiltrated
into the sanitary system. The overloaded plant then has no option other than to discharge
untreated wastewater into local waterways. Another contamination risk is a leaking
sanitary sewer system polluting the groundwater table. Wastewater utilities turned to
plastic pipe to solve their system integrity problems. Plastic pipe offered a high quality
joint and the ability to flex without breaking when soils shift and settle.

Figure 4: Plastic Pipe Offers a High Quality Joint

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III. Joining Options

Figure 5: Butt Fused PVC

Both PVC and HDPE offer butt fusion joints. Figure 5 shows a PVC option, which has
the trade names of Fusible C900TM and Fusible C905TM in the US and is offered by
Underground Solutions. Fused joints make plastic the most sensible choice for trenchless
installations.

Figure 6: An Example of a PVC Pipe Joint Designed for Sliplining Applications

For rehabilitating gravity sanitary sewer systems, sliplining is popular choice. It is not
necessary to by-pass pump when this option is used. Also, the size of the insertion pit is
minimal.

While these joining methods make innovative installation options available, the bell-and-
spigot gasketed joint is the most common. No special equipment or trained technicians
are required. The pipe spigot is simply levered into the adjoining pipe’s bell. See Figure
7. The worker in the background provides the assembly force. The worker in the
foreground verifies the proper depth of insertion.

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 Figure 7: Gasketed Bell-and-Spigot Joints are Easy to Assemble

When properly assembled, all these joining methods offer system integrity. However,
contractor error is still an issue. The pie chart on the left hand side of Figure 8 shows that
bad joints accounted for 48% of the failures for HDPE pipe for this utility. [2] The right
half of the Figure breaks down the joint failures by type. Contractors occasionally
assemble PVC incorrectly, too. In those rare cases, the root cause of the problem is
usually neglecting to clean the gasket raceway prior to assembly. The debris in the
raceway then gets pushed in between the gasket and the pipe’s spigot during assembly
and causes the joint to leak.

Figure 8: Failure Mode Breakdown for HDPE Pipe (left)

and Breakdown of Joint Failure Modes for HDPE Pipe (right)

The simpler the joining method, the less likely it is for human error to occur. This helps
explain the enduring preference for the gasketed bell-and-spigot joint.

IV. Ease of Installation

Compared to traditional materials, plastic pipe weighs much less. This allows it to be
handled more easily at the jobsite. In smaller diameters, it can be moved without
equipment and lowered into the ditch by hand. Its lighter weight also means that more

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pipe is delivered per truckload, which reduces shipping costs. Less room is needed for
storing the pipe on the jobsite because it can be stacked higher - again, because of its
lighter weight.

Figure 9: Lighter Weight Plastic Pipe is Easier to Handle on the Jobsite

V. Flexible

Figure 10: Plastic Pipes Are Flexible

The flexibility of plastic pipe allows it to move with the soil if it settles or shifts. Rigid
traditional products attempt to resist soil settlement by bridging the settlement zone.
When the settlement loads become too much for the rigid pipe, it suffers a beam break.

Since HDPE can be supplied in coils, users are quite familiar with its longitudinal
flexibility. Users are less familiar with the bending capabilities of PVC. To illustrate the
flexibility of PVC, the long-term strains in a demanding environment are compared to
PVC’s strain capacity. Mining activities create a very challenging environment for
buried structures. Soils strains of up to 0.7% are not uncommon in mine subsidence

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areas. As large as these strains are, they are well within PVC’s capabilities. Reference
[3] summarizes reports demonstrating strain capabilities of 2.5% and greater for PVC.
Thus, the safety factor provided by PVC in the aggressive soil environment of a mine
subsidence area is at least three, and likely, over five. Reference [4] provides a succinct
discussion of the strain capabilities of PVC in practical applications.

For HDPE, there is a trade-off for its flexibility. When an appurtenance is clamped onto
an HDPE pipe, the pipe slowly creeps away from the clamp. Thus, a stiffener should be
installed in order to give the HDPE pipe sufficient ring stiffness. Figure 11 shows an
example of a stiffening insert. [5] With PVC, stiffeners are not required.

Figure 11: Stiffening Insert for HDPE Pipe

VI. Hydraulics

Figure 12: Unlined Iron Pipe is Prone to Tuberculation

Unlined iron pipe has a terrible hydraulic track record. Tuberculation, shown in Figure
12, robbed iron pipes of their hydraulic capacity, and it only gets worse as the pipe gets
older. Conversely, the smooth interior of plastic pipe prevents tuberculation, and it stays
smooth for the long-term. Both thermoplastic products - HDPE and PVC - have the same
Hazen-Williams C Factor of 150. Since PVC has a higher tensile strength than HDPE, it

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can provide the same pressure capacity with less wall thickness. This results in PVC
having a larger inside diameter and greater flow capacity than HDPE.

VI. Conclusions
Corrosion-free plastic pipes have given utilities durable, lasting infrastructure. The
quality joints provide watertight systems that do not leak. The flexibility allows the pipe
to move with shifting soils instead of breaking. The smooth interior guarantees excellent
hydraulic properties over the long-term. The lighter weight makes it easier to work with.

For plastic pipe, no coating is needed to protect the pipe from its soil environment. Nor
is any coating needed on the inside to protect it from the fluid it is transporting. In short,
plastic pipe is inherently well suited for buried applications, and PVC is the plastic pipe
of choice.

VII. Bibliography
1. CC Technologies Laboratories, Inc., “Corrosion Cost and Preventive Strategies in the
United States,” FHWA-RD-01-156, September 30, 2001.

2. Stewart Burn et al, “Long Term Performance Prediction of PE Pipes,” AWWA

Annual Conference and Exposition Poster Session, Orlando, Florida, June, 2004.

3. Handbook of PVC Pipe: Design and Construction, 4th Edition, Uni-Bell PVC Pipe
Association, Dallas, Texas, August, 2001, p. 257.

4. “Response of Plastics Pipes to Axial Strains,” Vinidex Technical Note VX-TN-4E.1,

North Rocks, N.S.W., Australia, September, 1996.

5. “Stiffening Inserts,” Northern Specialty Product Literature, April 11, 2002, p. 6.20.

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