Welcome to John’s Blog. Answers to frequently asked questions are periodically posted here. The objective is to share information about PVC pipe with readers as well as with utilities, design engineers and pipe installers. The blog provides the latest information on PVC pipe design, installation, and application for water and wastewater infrastructure projects.
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John Houle: Senior Technical Consultant, PVC Pipe Industry
John Houle holds a Master’s Degree in Civil Engineering from the University of Missouri and an MBA from the University of Oregon. He has more than 25 years of experience in the plastic pipe industry in applications engineering, market development, forensic analysis, technical writing, and standards development.
Product standards for PVC water and sewer pipes typically require PVC materials to meet ASTM cell-class requirements. The cell class consists of five cells that designate different aspects of the material.
Each length of PVC pipe is required by its product standard to contain a line of print that describes the pipe.
This document compares two pipe materials for response to “occasional surge,” a term that might not be well understood. AWWA standards define “occasional surge” as: Occasional (emergency or transient) surge pressure: Surge pressures caused by emergency operations, usually the result of malfunction (such as power failure, sudden valve closure, or system component failure).
This document compares two pipe materials for response to “occasional surge,” a term that might not be well understood. So that everyone is on the same page, AWWA standards define “occasional surge” as: Occasional (emergency or transient) surge pressure: Surge pressures caused by emergency operations, usually the result of malfunction (such as power failure, sudden valve closure, or system component failure).
Back in 2007, the AWWA C900 standard for PVC pipe was revised. The most important change was the reduction of the standard’s safety factor from 2.5 to 2.0. A significant factor in the decision was more than 40 years of use of PVC pipe in ASTM pressure pipe applications with a safety factor of 2.0.
Some pipeline designers mistakenly contend that PVC pipe must be DR 18 or thicker to resist collapse due to vacuum caused by fire-flow conditions. This technical brief refutes that misconception.
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