PVC Water Pipe Research Articles

Effect of diethyl phthalate and lead leached from PVC water pipes in densely populated neighborhood of Lagos on Wistar rats (Rattus norvegicus)

Effect of diethyl phthalate and lead leached from PVC water pipes in densely populated neighborhood of Lagos on Wistar rats (Rattus norvegicus)

Impact of Pipe Length on Discharge and Headloss in PVC Water Pipe Installations

This study was conducted to investigate the implications of pipe length on water discharge and headloss in clean water pipe installations in Klampok hamlet, Indonesia. Three residential houses were selected as research sites, each equipped with a 2-inch diameter PVC type pipe and a water pump with a power of 3.6 housepower. The goal was to measure the water discharge, major and minor headloss, and the flow pattern within these pipe installations. Results revealed a water pump discharge to the reservoir of 0.004 m3/s, while the reservoir water discharge designated to supply residents’ houses was 0.0026 m3/s. Further, the study uncovered that headloss value was inversely proportional to pipe length, with a maximum major headloss value of 1.764 m at 17 m and a minimum of 1.038 m at 10 m, similarly mirrored in minor headloss values. Finally, the flow pattern within the pipe, irrespective of its length, was found to be turbulent, as deduced from the Reynolds number (Re=165,780 > 4,000). These findings underscore the role of pipe length in dictating energy loss and water discharge rates, offering key insights for the design and installation of efficient water supply systems.

Analysis of Premature Failure of a PVC Water Pipe

A case study of the failure analysis of a PVC drinking water pipeline is presented. One week after installation in a construction zone of a building, a longitudinal cracking, and pressure drop occurred in an underground pipeline, and an investigation was carried out to determine the causes of the event. Based on the results of visual inspection, dimensional metrology, plastography, microhardness, fractography, FTIR analysis, and stress analysis, the failure mechanisms of the pipe were identified as creep and slow crack growth. The cause of the development of these failure mechanisms was the exposure of the pipe, to a mixture of paint thinner and polyurethane paint, which generated plasticization, with the corresponding deterioration of the mechanical properties. The source of the plasticizer could have been an accidental spill or an incorrect final disposition of this chemical residue during the construction process of the building.

Human exposure to organophosphate esters in water and packed beverages

Drinks are an essential part of human diet, which makes them a source of human exposure to plasticizers such as organophosphate esters (OPEs). The current study provides new information about sixteen OPE levels in 75 different samples (tap water, packed water, cola drinks, juice, wine and hot drinks). Tap water mean levels (40.9 ng/L) were statistically higher than packed water mean levels (4.82 ng/L), mainly due to the contribution of tris(2-chloroisopropyl) phosphate (TCIPP) and tris(2-butoxyethyl) phosphate (TBOEP) that may come from PVC water pipes. Over 90% of samples presented at least one OPE, where regular cola drinks had the highest mean concentrations (2876 ng/L). There was a significantly higher presence of OPEs in added sugar beverages than sugar free drinks, especially for 2-ethylhexyl diphenyl phosphate (EHDPP), which might be related not only to packaging materials but to the added sugar content. Estimated daily intakes (EDIs) in normal and high-exposure scenarios were 2.52 ng/kg bw/day and 7.43 ng/kg bw/day, respectively. Human risk associated with beverages ingestion showed regular cola drinks, juice and tap water as the groups with the highest hazard quotients (HQs). Although OPE exposure was below to safety limits, it should be noted that EHDPP values for regular cola group must be cause of concern, and other routes of exposure such as food ingestion or air inhalation should be also considered.

The Impact of Job Satisfaction on Employee Turnover Intention: With Special Reference to PVC Water Pipes Manufacturing Industries in Sri Lanka

The Impact of Job Satisfaction on Employee Turnover Intention: With Special Reference to PVC Water Pipes Manufacturing Industries in Sri Lanka

PLC Based Prepaid Purified Water Drinking Station

PLC based prepaid purified drinking water station was designed and developed to address the safe distribution of purified drinking water at a reasonable cost to the end users and helped reduce the increasing number of solid wastes brought by used plastic bottles. The design of the machine was in accordance with the standard specifications of a water dispenser. The machine was fabricated using high grade stainless steel and food grade PVC water pipes. The evaluation of the machine underwent several trials to meet the desired volume of water. Dispensing of 250ml purified water will be attained by inserting the validated peso coin to the coin acceptor. The preset time for every transaction is four seconds.Overall dimensions of the machine are 60x52x16 inches equipped with 4 mini water pumps, a controller and four gooseneck faucets. The performance of the machine satisfies the perception of the evaluators. The design was based on the standards of a water vending machine and the desired volume of water to be dispensed was met.

Defining the Chemical Additives Driving In Vitro Toxicities of Plastics.

Increases in the global use of plastics have caused concerns regarding potential adverse effects on human health. Plastic products contain hundreds of potentially toxic chemical additives, yet the exact chemicals which drive toxicity currently remain unknown. In this study, we employed nontargeted analysis and in vitro bioassays to identify the toxicity drivers in plastics. A total of 56 chemical additives were tentatively identified in five commonly used plastic polymer pellets (i.e., PP, LDPE, HDPE, PET, and PVC) by employing suspect screening and nontargeted analysis. Phthalates and organophosphates were found to be dominant in PVC pellets. Triphenyl phosphate and 2-ethylhexyl diphenyl phosphate accounted for a high amount (53.6%) of the inhibition effect of PVC pellet extract on human carboxylesterase 1 (hCES1) activity. Inspired by the high abundances of chemical additives in PVC pellets, six different end-user PVC-based products including three widely used PVC water pipes were further examined. Among them, extracts of PVC pipe exerted the strongest PPARγ activity and cell viability suppression. Organotins were identified as the primary drivers to these in vitro toxicities induced by the PVC pipe extracts. This study clearly delineates specific chemical additives responsible for hCES1 inhibition, PPARγ activity, and cell viability suppression associated with plastic.

3D Printed Microwave Clamp Probe Design to Detect Water Level in PVC Pipes

The permittivity of water is considerably larger than that of air. As the amount of water in PVC water pipes increases, the air will be replaced by water. This means that the electromagnetic environment properties inside the pipe will change. In this study, we proposed a microwave clamp probe designed with a 3D printer that can detect the percentage of water in 50 mm diameter PVC water pipes. The clamp probe allows measurement of return loss from a single port for determining the fill rate of water without any physical intervention from outside the pipe. The clamp, which is structurally similar to a loop antenna, operates at a frequency of 2.45 GHz. As a result of simulations and experimental measurements for different fill percentages of the pipe, the input impedance of the clamp was calculated. Then, an impedance-fill rate graph was created, showing the amount of water in the pipe section according to the impedance values obtained. The impedance seen from the clamp input indicated a linear increase between 40-100 Ω, according to the 0%, 20%, 50%, 80% and 100% of the water in the pipe. The clamp has a compact structure that can be used as a plug-and-play anywhere on the horizontal.

Shields on Electric Posts Prevent Primate Deaths: A Case Study at Polonnaruwa, Sri Lanka

When monkeys, such as the toque macaques (Macaca sinica) of Sri Lanka, seek food on the ground near human habitation, they may use electrical posts to escape aggression from conspecifics, dogs, or humans. Shields mounted on electrical posts prevented monkeys from reaching the electrical wires, thereby averting their electrocution: the frequency of electrocutions (n = 0) was significantly less (p < 0.001) in the 12 years after installation of the shields than in the 12 years before (n = 18). Electric shocks were either fatal (n = 14) or caused permanent injury (n = 4) (collectively referred to as electrocutions hereafter). The shields may find broader applications in other primate species and environments wherever monkeys are attracted by human food near electrical posts. Primates and other arboreal mammals also accessed live wires from trees; at known electrocution hotspots, short spans of exposed wires were insulated by encapsulating them in PVC water pipes. It was impossible, however, to prevent electrocutions from all electric supply infrastructures that put monkeys at risk. A wider use of insulated electric conductors in planning power distribution in habitats frequented by wild animals would be desirable in preventing electric shocks to wildlife.

Development of Self-Funded Water Supply for People of Sidomulyo, Sragen Using Deep Well with Submersible Pump

The availability of water is a problem for the people of Sidomulyo, Krikilan, Sragen at dry season. Having a higher altitude than other areas causes the water from the government water supply company difficult, reaching the area, particularly at the peak time. Some people using water from bore water also have the same problem of limited water. It is, therefore, necessary to bore the deep well for getting enough water to satisfy the people’s needs. The deep level of the well should be enough to assure not to absorb the water source of people’s well. In this program, the well with the deep of 81 m is bored, and PVC water pipes are placed inside the hole assuring only the deep bore water is taken out. This is aimed to avoid taking water from the low-level source, which may reduce the water going to the people’s well. For pumping purposes, the submersible electric pump is used. It is 3 hp, 2500-Watt pump with a capacity of 18 m3 per hour. From the 3-day pumping test, the capacity of well is very enough to provide water needs for the 34 families of Sidomulyo. High-water storage with the dimension of (2.4 x 2.4 x 2) m3 has been constructed with a height of 7.4 m to the tank base. The power source is currently from the electrical utility but is planned will be from Solar Photovoltaic. From a financial perspective, the revenue from the water bill will support community activities.

Application of the differentiation process into the correlation-based leak detection in urban pipeline networks

Abstract One major challenge currently facing pipeline networks across the world is the improvement of leak detection technologies in urban environments. There is an imperative to locate accurately leaks in buried water pipes to avoid serious environmental, social and economic consequences. Much attention has been paid to time delay estimation (TDE) in determining the position of a leak by utilising cross-correlation, which has been proven to be effective with varying degrees of success over the past half century. Previous research in published literature has demonstrated the effectiveness of the pre-whitening process for accentuating the peak in the cross-correlation associated with the time delay. This paper is concerned with the implementation of the differentiation process for TDE, with particular focus on the problem of determining a leak in pipelines by means of pipe pressure measurements. Rather than the pre-whitening operation, the proposed cross-correlation via the differentiation process, termed here DIF, changes the characteristics of the pipe system so that the pipe effectively acts as a band-pass filter. This method has the potential to eliminate some ambiguity caused by the interference at low frequencies and to allow more high frequency information to pass. Given an appropriate differentiation order, a more pronounced and reliable peak is obtained in the cross-correlation result. The use of differentiation process may provide a viable cross-correlation method suited to water leak detection. Its performance in relation to leak detection is further compared to the basic cross-correlation and pre-whitening methods for TDE in detecting a leak from actual PVC water pipes. Experimental results are presented to show an additional property of the DIF compensating for the resonance effects that may exist in cross-spectral density measurements, and hence better performance for TDE.

Indirect preservation of Egyptian historical sites using 3D GPR survey

Non-invasive geophysical techniques are used to collect information about the environmental risks that threaten the historical sites in Egypt and indirectly preserve them. In this study the modern 3D-GPR imaging at two important Egyptian sites was applied for preservation purposes. The first site is the internal Piazza of Al-Azhar Mosque, while the second site is the proposed route through which the Ramesses-II statue will be transported to the main entrance of the Grand Egyptian Museum. The 3D-GPR surveys were performed using the 100 MHz GSSI antenna at Al-Azhar Piazza and the Hi-Mode IDS GPR system with 200 and 600 MHz dual antenna at the Grand Egyptian Museum. The analysis and interpretation of the 3D-GPR data at the first site led to image large voids and walls objects, which are very likely to represent shallow water tanks that were frequently used in the past. One main water tank was recently discovered at the southern part of the piazza, which causes water leakage to the walls of Al-Azhar Mosque. Moreover, the GPR results at the second site have showed that the proposed route is totally covered by sand and has neither cracks nor cavities or any other archeological features. There is only a PVC water pipe, which is buried at a relatively shallow depth of 0.25 m. Such PVC pipe might collapse during the transportation of Ramesses-II Statue and should be taken into consideration.

Reasserting the primacy of human needs to reclaim the ‘lost half’ of sustainable development

The concept of sustainable development evolved from growing awareness of the interdependence of social and economic progress with the limits of the supporting natural environment, becoming progressively integrated into global agreements and transposition into local regulatory and implementation frameworks. We argue that transposition of the concept into regulation and supporting tools reduced the focus to minimal environmental and social standards, perceived as imposing constraints rather than opportunities for innovation to meet human needs. The aspirational ‘half’ of the concept of sustainable development specifically addressing human needs was thus lost in transposing high ideals into regulatory instruments. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) restore focus on interlinked human needs, stimulating innovation of products and processes to satisfy them. Through three case studies – PVC water pipes, river quality management in England, and UK local air quality management – we explore the current operationalisation of the concept in diverse settings, using the SDG framework to highlight the broader societal purposes central to sustainable development. Partnerships involving civil society support evolution of regulatory instruments and their implementation, optimising social and ecological benefits thereby serving more human needs. Restoring the visionary ‘lost half’ of sustainable development – meeting human needs in sustainable ways – creates incentives for innovation and partnership; an innovation framework rather than a perceived constraint.

Thermal Analysis of Insulated Concrete Form (ICF) Walls

Abstract A three dimensional numerical model of a PVC water pipe embedded inside an insulated concrete form wall was numerically developed. Different wall thickness sizes and optimal distance between pipes were analyzed. Three inlet temperature and four inlet velocity for each set have been studied. Thermal behavior of the concrete was investigated in a transient mode. This study focused on storing thermal energy inside the wall and using it when there is a demand rather than transferring heat for space conditioning. Predicted heat transfer rate and potential thermal energy storage were tabulated. In general, this study helps designers to gain detail understanding of heat transmission between water pipe and concrete.

Study of non-uniform bedding support under continuous PVC water distribution pipes

Current design standards for buried pipe installations assume that loading and bedding conditions along pipes are uniform, and thus do not take into account the effect of soil variability. However, although careful attention may be paid during pipe installation, there is still a possibility that a pipeline may experience non-uniform loading or bedding conditions during its lifetime, which may lead to pipe failure. Thus, these conditions should be addressed to understand the implications of construction practice and problems that may be detected after construction. In this paper, a parametric study employing three-dimensional finite element analysis is used to examine a continuous PVC water pipe. The objective is to understand the effect of non-uniform bedding support on the stability of buried PVC pressure pipes, and the longitudinal soil–pipe interaction. The numerical analyses are performed using ABAQUS. The results of the finite element analyses demonstrate that pipes with discontinuous bedding experience stresses higher than those with uniform ground support (37–69% higher for medium dense sand, and 45–95% higher for dense sand bedding), and that it is better to achieve uniform soil support under the pipe invert than to achieve non-uniform support in high stiffness (highly compacted) bedding (results that support conventional wisdom where a layer of uncompacted bedding is used under the invert in preference to well compacted bedding that is not level). The analysis also indicates that it is more important to achieve that uniform support under the invert than dense soil backfill under the haunches.

Mycelial fungi completely remediate di(2-ethylhexyl)phthalate, the hazardous plasticizer in PVC blood storage bag

This pioneering work describes how simply, inexpensively and efficiently novel fungi utilize the alarming plasticizer, di(2-ethylhexyl)phthalate (DEHP) blended in PVC blood storage bags (BB). In order to quantify total DEHP (33.5%, w/w) present in BB, it was extracted using n-hexane and confirmed by GC–MS. Three mycelial fungi, viz., Aspergillus parasiticus, Fusarium subglutinans and Penicillium funiculosum isolated in our laboratory form heavily plastics-contaminated soil – either singly or in consortium – completely consumed intact DEHP physically bound to BB by static submerged growth (28°C) in simple basal salt medium (BSM). A two-stage cultivation strategy was adopted for the complete removal of DEHP from BB in situ. During the first growth stage, almost 70% DEHP contained in the BB was consumed in 2 weeks, accompanied by increased fungal biomass (∼0.15–0.35g/g BB; OD ∼7 at 600nm) and a sharp declining (3.3) of initial pH (7.2). Spent BSM was replaced at this stagnant growth state (low pH), thus in the second stage, remaining DEHP bound to BB utilized completely (over 99%). Furthermore, A. parasiticus and F. subglutinans also grew well on scrapes of PVC water pipes in BSM. F. subglutinans was as efficient independently as consortium in completely utilizing the DEHP bound to BB, and these fungi offer great potentials for the inexpensive and eco-friendly bioremediation of phthalates in medical and allied PVC wastes on a large scale through a batch process in alleviating the plactics waste management issue.

Study of non-uniform bedding due to voids under jointed PVC water distribution pipes

In this paper, the stresses and deformations are studied in a buried PVC water pipe with bell-and-spigot joints, and with localized voids leaving the invert and haunches unsupported. The finite element program ABAQUS is used to assess changes in the stresses and deformations as a function of the void geometry under the pipe. The results of the analyses are evaluated in terms of factors of safety and displacements. The minimum factor of safety calculated for the specific pipe and bedding conditions considered in this study decreases by 36% if the void forms away from the joint, and by 30% when a joint is centred over the void. The most critical void location is directly under the bell of the pipe, likely because this permits the greatest rotation at the joint. This is also the most likely void location resulting during construction, since the bedding is generally excavated under protruding bells. In each case being considered, the factor of safety remained above 5, illustrating that current water pipe design includes conservative choice of wall thickness to accommodate imperfections of this kind, in addition to other factors such as pressure surges.

Damage Survey of Water Supply Systems and Fragility Curve of PVC Water Pipelines in the Chi–Chi Taiwan Earthquake

Substantial damage to water supply systems, including water delivery pipelines, water treatment plants, reservoirs, and water storage tanks, was reported after the 1999 Chi–Chi Taiwan Earthquake. This paper first summarizes the damage survey and then presents the results of seismic fragility analysis for underground pipelines. Construction blueprints of the water delivery pipelines and repair work orders of 11 townships and cities in the disastrous area were digitized into a Geographical Information System (GIS) for analysis and assessment. With the aid of the GIS system, we found that PVC pipes made up 86% of water delivery pipelines while steel, cast iron, ductile iron, PE and others took the rest. Therefore, this paper focuses on the fragility analysis of PVC pipes. Three different methods were applied to derive the fragility relations between the PVC water pipes having nominal diameters (approximately inner diameters) greater than or equal to 65 mm and earthquake intensity parameters such as peak ground acceleration and peak ground velocity. The results were then examined with those of other countries. The discrepancy between our results and the empirical equation used by HAZUS, an earthquake loss estimation software developed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency was not significant.

The role of chemical information in shaping the spatial activity of bank voles in a free-living population

A field experiment was carried out in two types of forest environment — a relatively homogenous mixed coniferous forest with low plant species diversity and a reach and spatially differentiated alder wood. Spatial variation in activity of voles was sampled by placing ink pads and paper inside PVC waterpipes laid in a line on the forest floor. In the first stage of the experiment, use of space by bank volesClethrionomys glareolus (Schreber, 1780) was analysed without any bait in track collection tubes. In the second stage, we used an attractant in the form of scent collected from alien bank vole individuals of different sex (males, females), age (juveniles, adults) and physiological state (sexually active and not active). In the coniferous forest the distribution of number of visits in tracking tubes was of aggregated character both before and after providing odour of alien individuals. In the alder wood the aggregation level that had been initially lower than in the coniferous forest increased after providing scent. As a consequence, placing scent of alien individuals resulted in decreasing differences in animal distribution in both habitats. The results allow also to the supposition that the reaction to scent depends on sex, age, and the physiological state of the donor.

A simple and inexpensive trap-tube sampler for zooplankton collection in shallow waters

The paper describes a new type of zooplankton sampler, which combines the concepts of the Pennak core sampler and the Schindler-Patalas plankton trap. The new sampler, called Trap Tube Sampler, consists of a PVC water pipe (1.5–2.0 m, long; 10 cm diameter) provided, at the bottom end, of a filtering unit and closing mechanism which alternatively closes the mouth of the tube and the mouth of the filtering unit. The new device is particularly suitable for collecting samples from the entire water column in shallow vegetated water bodies, fish ponds and mesocosm tanks.