While plastic pipes for civil engineering applications have been adopted by many countries, they are not commonplace everywhere. It has often thought that plastic pipes lose stiffness over time, reducing the load bearing capacity. Teppfa have investigated this thoroughly over a four year period and are pleased to share the results. Discover here why plastic pipes are in it for the long run!
Titanium, diamonds, even spider silk – all materials that have been lauded as the strongest to be found in nature. Then there are the manmade structures – steel, graphene and all-new carbyne. However, strength is relative. Not every application needs the hardest, strongest, most resilient material. Could it be the case that sometimes, materials are overspecified?
Take civil engineering pipelines – sewers and stormwater drains – as an example. They are rugged, tough applications that require a hard, heavyweight material to withstand the demands of large volumes and velocities. Or do they? Could another material do the same job?
While plastic pipes for these applications have been adopted by many countries, particularly emerging economies, they are not commonplace everywhere. It has often thought that plastic pipes lose stiffness over time, reducing the load bearing capacity – just one reason given for the absence of plastic pipes on some civil engineering specifications. Teppfa have investigated this thoroughly over a four year period and are pleased to share the results.
Full scale field trials included investigation of internal pressure, traffic load and time effect to extrapolate the performance of plastics over time – with a view to proving long-term load bearing capacity. The findings may surprise you.
Without reading ahead, can you guess which material – plastic or steel – deflected by the greatest amount over a period of 1,500 days?
Well, there is really not much to choose between them.
Each material (plastic and thin wall steel pipe) deflected somewhere in the region of 4% and 6%. Even the initial deflection during the settlement period varied little, and from around 200 days onwards, no additional deflection at all was recorded. The ring deflection of flexible pipes was found to be controlled by the settlement of soil, with traffic and other loads having no affect after the ground had settled – proving that plastic does not weaken over time and in fact is just as durable as steel.
All of which means that the relative strength of plastic makes it more than deserving of consideration for civil engineering applications.
To view the full Buried Pipes Study from TEPPFA and the Association of Plastics Manufacturers in Europe (APME), follow this link: www.teppfa.eu/buriedpipes.
Discover: Plastics celebrates the flexibility, longevity and strength of plastic pipes – as well as their ease and speed of installation – drawing on more than 20 years of independent research.
The European Plastic Pipes and Fittings Association (TEPPFA http://www.teppfa.eu) is the trade association representing manufacturers and national associations of plastic pipe systems in Europe.
We are actively involved in the promotion of plastic pipe systems for all applications. We want to raise awareness of the value that plastic pipe systems offer for a sustainable future.