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.
The PE industry has developed a new pressure-pipe material that has been described as “high-strength.” Although the words “high-strength” sound reassuring, the reality is that pipe made from PE4710 is anything but. The reason is that the new material has the same Hydrostatic Design Basis (HDB) as the earlier-generation PE3608. For both materials, the HDB = 1600 psi per the appropriate standards and test methods. For comparison, PVC’s HDB is 4000 psi. The obvious question is: how can a PE material be “higher-strength” if its strength is the same? The answer is that the material can appear to be higher strength if a lower safety factor is used. One example should suffice: let’s compare Pressure Class 100 psi (PC 100) pipe made from PE3608 and from PE4710. The AWWA C906 standard requires the minimum burst strength to be 365 psi for the lower-strength PE3608. For the new “higher-strength” PE4710 material, the burst strength is only 290 psi. This means the “higher-strength” PE4710 pipe has burst strength 75 psi lower! The Tech Brief looks at this and three other items that you should be considering as you investigate PE4710. Click here to read.
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