PE100 Pipes to last well beyond 50 design life
UKWIR (UK Water Industry Research) have recently published a report revealing the long term aging of Polyethethelene pipes.
As stated in the report ‘The project involved exhuming and analysing these test beds of plastic pipes and joints laid over 30 years ago and evaluating the long-term asset performance, the associated risk of asset ageing and the effectiveness of improved electrofusion jointing initiatives.’
The test programme consisted of determining the level of depletion of antioxidants, with additional testing to ensure that material performance was not affected during that process. This was used in the calculation of the expected lifetime of the pipes.
Based on the results, PE100 pipes are likely to last well over the current design life of 50 years and even as long as 160 years.
