• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.7 no.4
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• pp.241-262
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• 2011

Cast iron pipe has been used as a water distribution technology in North America since the early nineteenth century. The first cast iron pipes were made of grey cast iron which was succeeded by ductile iron as a pipe material in the 1940s. These different iron alloys have significantly different microstructures which give rise to distinct mechanical properties. Insight into the non-destructive structural condition assessment of aging pipes can be advantageous in developing mitigation strategies for pipe failures. This paper examines the relationship between the small-strain and large-strain properties of exhumed cast iron water pipes. Nondestructive and destructive testing programs were performed on eight pipes varying in age from 40 to 130 years. The experimental program included microstructure evaluation and ultrasonic, tensile, and flexural testing. New applications of frequency domain analysis techniques including Fourier and wavelet transforms of ultrasonic pulse velocity measurements are presented. A low correlation between wave propagation and large-strain measurements was observed. However, the wave velocities were consistently different between ductile and grey cast iron pipes (14% to 18% difference); the ductile iron pipes showed the smaller variation in wave velocities. Thus, the variation of elastic properties for ductile iron was not enough to define a linear correlation because all the measurements were practically concentrated in single cluster of points. The cross-sectional areas of the specimens tested varied as a result of minor manufacturing defects and levels of corrosion. These variations affect the large strain testing results; but, surface defects have limited effect on wave velocities and may also contribute to the low correlations observed. Lamb waves are typically not considered in the evaluation of ultrasonic pulse velocity. However, Lamb waves were found to contribute significantly to the frequency content of the ultrasonic signals possibly resulting in the poor correlations observed. Therefore, correlations between wave velocities and large strain properties obtained using specimens manufactured in the laboratory must be used with caution in the condition assessment of aged water pipes especially for grey cast iron pipes.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.29 no.6
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• pp.659-666
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• 2015

In this study, Hazen-Williams C value of pipes in wide waterworks system was estimated and statistically analyzed. Hazen-Williams C value of water pipe was predicted after 20 years of service period. From the results, it was found that C value of water pipe for treated water maintained higher value of 110 after 20 years of installation. Furthermore, it was found that velocity coefficients of steel pipe for less than and more than 20 years of installation were 117.7 and 109.3, respectively. C value of ductile iron pipe for less than and more than 20 years of installation were 118.1 and 114.2, respectively. In this study, it was also found that small value of C is used in the design of water pipe system. Therefore, excessively bigger size of pipe can be determined in the design of water pipe system. From the results of present study, optimum value of C can be used to avoid the oversized design of water pipe system.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.20 no.6
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• pp.555-561
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• 2000

The remote field eddy current (RFEC) inspection was performed on the ductile cast iron pipes with nominal outer diameter of 100mm, which were machined with various shapes and sizes of defects. Ductile cast iron pipes which are used as water supply pipe have the non-uniform thickness and asymmetric cross section due to relatively high degree of allowable errors during the manufacturing processes. These characteristics of ductile cast in pipes cause the long range background noises in RFEC signals along the pipe. In this study, tile machined defects in pipes were effectively classified by the moving window average (MWA) method which eliminated the long-range noise. The voltage plane polar plots (VPPP) method was used to quantitatively evaluate the depth and circumferential degree of defects. The VPPP signatures showed that the angle between defect signature and the normalized in-phase component on the VPPP is linear to the depth of defects. The nondestructive RFEC technique proved to be capable of quantitatively evaluating the machined defects of underground water supply pipe.

• Korean Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineering
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.44-49
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• 2018

High-strength plastic water supply pipe evaluation method was evaluated in this study. Up to date, high strength water supply pipes that we install are mostly ductile cast iron pipes. Sometimes, a few PVC pipes are installed. Metal pipes have rust problem on the surface, causing serious damage to metal pipes and reducing the expected life span of water piping system. Nowadays, depending on technology development, some companies have improved properties of general PVC pipe performance with remarkable properties that exceed KS and ASTM standard. Here, we suggest a new method of performance evaluation for high-strength water plastic pipes.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.14 no.6
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• pp.1114-1119
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• 2004

The biofilms on pipe walls in water distribution systems are of interest since they can lead to chlorine demand, coliform growth, pipe corrosion, and water taste and odor problems. As such, the study described in this paper is part of an AWWARF and Tampa Bay Water tailored collaboration project to determine the effect of blending different source waters on the water quality in various distribution systems. The project was based on 18 independent pilot distribution systems (PDS), each being fed by a different water blend (7 finished waters blended in different proportions). The source waters compared were groundwater, surface water, and brackish water, which were treated in a variety of pilot distribution systems, including reverse osmosis (RO) (desalination), both membrane and chemical softening, and ozonation-biological activated carbon (BAC), resulting in a total of 7 different finished waters. The observations from this study consistently demonstrated that unlined ductile iron was more heavily colonized by a biomass than galvanized steel, lined ductile iron, and PVC (in that order) and that the fixed biomass accumulation was more influenced by the nature of the supporting material than by the water quality (including the secondary residual levels). However, although the bulk liquid water cultivable bacterial counts (i.e. heterotrophic plate counts or HPCs) did not increase with a greater biofilm accumulation, the results also suggested that high HPCs corresponded to a low disinfectant residual more than a high biofilm inventory. Furthermore, temperature was found to affect the biofilms, plus the AOC was important when the residual was between 0.6 and 2.0 mg $Cl_2/l$. An additional aspect of the current study was that the potential of the exoproteolytic activity (PEPA) technique was used along with a traditional so-called destructive technique in which the biofilm was scrapped off the coupon surface, resuspended, and cultivated on an R2A agar. Both techniques indicated similar trends and relative comparisons among the PDSs, yet the culturable biofilm values for the traditional method were several orders of magnitude lower than the PEPA values.

• Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.195-199
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• 2009

A series of laboratory-scale corrosion experiments was carried out to observe the effect of dissolved oxygen (DO) in the presence of other water quality parameters, such as hardness, Cl-, and pH using various pipe materials. In addition, a simulated loop system was installed at a water treatment plant for pilot-scale experiment. Laboratory-scale experiment showed that corrosion rates for galvanized steel pipe (GSP), carbon steel pipe (CSP), and ductile cast iron pipe (DCIP) were decreased to 72%, 75%, and 91% by reducing DO concentration from 9${\pm}$0.5 mg/L to 2${\pm}$0.5 mg/L. From the pilot scale experiment, it was further identified that the average ionization rate of zinc in GSP decreased from 0.00533 to 0.00078 mg/$cm^2$/d by controlling the concentration of DO. The reduction of average ionization rate for copper pipe (CP) and stainless steel pipe (SSP) were 71.4% for Cu and 63.5% for Fe, respectively. From this study, it was concluded that DO could be used as a major parameter in controlling the corrosion of water pipes.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.545-558
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• 2006

The current conditions of large water mains are evaluated by deteriorations and the causes of deterioration are investigated through visual assessments in the field, mechanical tests and analysis of chemical compositions in laboratory for each pipe material, unlined cast iron pipes (CIPs), ductile iron pipes (DCIPs) and steel pipes (SPs) Tubercles and scales from internal and external corrosion of unlined cast iron pipes were identified as the causes of functional performance limitations in large water mains. It is investigated that main causes of internal and external corrosion of water pipes are from lots of depositions of organic and inorganic substances on pipe surface, concentrated pitting, and uniform corrosion by local or global exfoliation or detachment of lining and coatings of DCIPs and SPs. Internal and external corrosion depths of CIPs were higher than those of DCIPs and SPs. Consequently, total corrosion rate summed internal and external corrosion rates of CIPs also were shown to be higher than those of DCIPs and SPs. The failure time from hole generation of CIPs by total corrosion rate was predicted to be taken sixteen years, and DCIPs and SPs were twenty-six years and one hundred and fifty three years. And longitudinal deflection of investigated water mains were not happened and mechanical strengths such as tensile strength, elongation, and hardness also were mostly suited to Korea Standards. It was thought that the weakness of tensile strength of one sample(S-11) was, however, due to higher carbon contents(%) in CIPs. Pipe deterioration score of S-46 was 55.2 and was preferentially assessed to be rehabilitated.

• Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.17-28
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• 2008

In this study, the residual strength prediction models were proposed by measuring various residual strength according to pit characteristics for metallic water pipes such as cast iron pipe (CIP), ductile iron pipe (DIP), and steel pipe (SP). The exponential prediction model was better fitted to measured residual tensile strength for CIP. In case of DIP and SP, the prediction model using loss of strength was more exactly predicted compared with other model types. The fracture toughness were averagely $40.46kgf/mm^2{\sqrt{mm}}$ for CIP, $85.27kgf/mm^2{\sqrt{mm}}$ for DIP, and $92.27kgf/mm^2{\sqrt{mm}}$ for SP, the determination coefficient ($R^2$) of between measured residual tensile strength and predicted values for residual strength prediction models using fracture toughness was estimated from 0.44 to 0.86. Especially, the proposed residual tensile strength prediction models were applied for the verification and reliability to CIPs and DIPs at 14 sites. The determination coefficient ($R^2$) between measured residual tensile strength and predicted values was estimated from 0.76 to 0.78. Therefore it was thought that the proposed residual tensile strength models could help to support resonable and economical decision of rehabilitation/replacement.

• Corrosion Science and Technology
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.115-127
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• 2017

Coal tar-coated pipes buried in a domestic nuclear power plant have operated under the cathodic protection. This work conducted the simulation of the coating performance of these pipes using a FEM method. The pipes, being ductile cast iron have been suffered under considerably high cathodic protection condition beyond the appropriate condition. However, cathodic potential measured at the site revealed non-protected status. Converting from 3D CAD data of the power plant to appropriate type for a FEM simulation was conducted and cathodic potential under the applied voltage and current was calculated using primary and secondary current distribution and physical conditions. FEM simulation for coal tar-coated pipe without defects revealed over-protection condition if the pipes were well-coated. However, the simulation for coal tar-coated pipes with many defects predict that the coated pipes may be severely degraded. Therefore, for high risk pipes, direct examination and repair or renewal of pipes are strongly recommended.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.32 no.5
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• pp.461-470
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• 2018

In this study, the leak signal was measured by using an accelerometer to analyze the basic data and methodology for the development of the leak point estimation method in the water supply pipe. The measured results were analyzed by frequency analysis and cross-correlation analysis for leakage signals, and the error range was compared and analyzed with the actual leak point distance. As a result, it was confirmed that the vibration intensity due to leakage from the water leakage point was attenuated according to the distance. In the case of the ductile iron casting used in the experiment, the intensity of the signal at the 945 Hz, 1,500 Hz, 2,300 Hz band was increased with the change of the pressure in the pipe at 4mm of leakage hole. Also, it was confirmed that as the water pressure increases, the intensity of the leak signal increases but the similarity of the signal decreases. The results of this study confirm that the accelerometer sensor can be used efficiently for leak detection and it can be used as a basic data for the analysis for the development of leak point estimation method in the future.