Prestressed Concrete Cylinder Pipe (PCCP) water mains are designed to withstand cyclic high
pressure surges; however, repeated spikes over a period of time can cause catastrophic failure of
the pipeline as the integrity of the pipe is gradually degraded. This was the case for a surface
water refill line in the City of Houston's water system. On June 8, 2004, the 42-inch prestressed
concrete cylinder pipe supplying potable surface water to one of the City's Water Pump Stations
failed and flooded several residential properties. After failure of the water line, the City enlisted
two area consulting firms to further investigate the cause of the failure, review operational
procedures, and simulate in a computer model the conditions that led to the failure. In a proactive
step, the City of Houston also called for the consultants to assess the potential for damage
to the refill lines servicing two other water pump stations with similar operational procedures,
and recommend preventative measures against future water refill line failures. Combining
efforts, the consulting team utilized two transient analysis software packages to develop
representative models of the three water systems. The comparative transient analyses performed
on the failed system confirmed the peak pressures that occurred at the failure site and the
procedural changes required to mitigate possible failures in the future. Includes 3 references, table, figures.
| Edition : | Vol. - No. |
| File Size : | 1
file
, 1.8 MB |
| Note : | This product is unavailable in Ukraine, Russia, Belarus |
| Number of Pages : | 10 |
| Published : | 06/01/2006 |
