GRP is thermoset plastic resin reinforced with fibreglass and lined with a gel coat. The material ia generally corrosion resistant to most chemicals and thus has found a market in the chemical industry. It is cost competitive to alloy steel piping but does have some design limitations.
The physical properties are anisentropic and thus needs additional engineering. The material has a low strain tolerance so in buried applications or at supports care needs to be taken in assessing the local buckling criteria.
There are different techniques in laying up the reinforcement. Some designs use acriss cross roving, others a layered wrap and HOBAS uses a sand filled resin with random orientated chopped glass strands. Each of these techniques affects the physical properties.
GRP has been used in service station piping for petroleum however I have not heard of its use in refineries ither than for effluent treatment plants or buried watermains.
Some chemical plants may use polypropylene or uPVC piping reinforced with fibreglass.
Because pipes are generally laid up on mandrels they are in flanged lengths or use a rubber ring jointed system. This makes field work more intensive as one has to wait for closing lengths or the need for thrust blocks. Once in the pipe system is not easy to modify.
Some problems I have encountered include:-
Collapse in trench conditions
Delamination of the internal gel coat
External damage due to impact from tools, rocks etc
Fire damage
Long term degradation
Suggest you surf the net , find the suppliers and get the information from them.
The are standards that cover this material in ASTM, AWWA etc. Invest in the standards and read up on the material. They can all be downloaded, for a price, from the standards web sites.
Good Luck..
Geoff Stone
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