Re: Re: Butt Welded HDPE Pipe

From: <Christopher>
Date: Mon May 17 2004 - 11:13:00 EDT

>If the flow is turbulent anyway the bead should hardly be of importance.
Be careful in specific circumstances. For cultural value a water line in my home eroded clear through about a year ago. The plumber who fixed it told me that a burr on the cut pipe at the solder joint was responsible. I heard one time that flow velocity affects corrosion for certain metals, copper and copper nickel alloys among them, and it looked like a good example. The burr resulted in a locally higher flow velocity and tubulence which scrubbed the area clean. The joint was at one end of the run of a tee which had been used as a branch connection, so there was additional turbulence caused by flow from the tee branch out through the run. By the time I noticed the pinhole leak which eventually (about 25 years) formed, one whole side of the pipe was paper thin.

I had a neighbor split the joint, and the eroded area extended 2-3 diameters downstream which I figureis about the extent of the major influence of local turbulence due the separation

Christopher Wright P.E.    |"They couldn't hit an elephant at
chrisw@skypoint.com        | this distance"   (last words of Gen.
___________________________| John Sedgwick, Spotsylvania 1864)
http://www.skypoint.com/~chrisw Received on Mon May 17 11:13:00 2004

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