Internal surface roughness of plastic pipes for irrigation

Abstract

ABSTRACT Assuming that a roughness meter can be successfully employed to measure the roughness on the internal surface of irrigation pipes, this research had the purpose of defining parameters and procedures required to represent the internal surface roughness of plastic pipes used in irrigation. In 2013, the roughness parameter Ra, traditional for the representation of surface irregularities in most situations, and the parameters Rc, Rq, and Ry were estimated based on 350 samples of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and low-density polyethylene (LDPE) pipes. Pressure losses were determined from experiments carried out in laboratory. Estimations of pressure loss varied significantly according to the roughness parameters (Ra, Rc, Rq, and Ry) and the corresponding pipe diameter. Therefore, specific values of roughness for each pipe diameter improves accuracy in pressure losses estimation. The average values of internal surface roughness were 3.334 and 8.116 μm for PVC and LDPE pipes, respectively.