Abstract:
An experimental investigation of the effect of testing temperature on the
internal pressure sustaining capacity of locally manufactured polyvinyl chloride
(PVC) pipes is presented in this thesis. An experimental set-up consisting of a
constant temperature bath, temperature control devices and a pressurizing device
is designed, fabricated and installed for the investigation.
It is observed from the experimental results that there is significant effect
of temperature on the mean failure pressure characteristics of the PVC pipes.
With the increase of the temperature, the failure pressure decreases remarkably.
For a wide range of temperature, from 10°C to 50°C, the experimental
investigation is carried out. At each temperature, a reasonable number of samples
.for the study is considered and the mean failure pressure is calculated. An
empirical relation between mean failure pressure and temperature is also
introduced.
Two types of failures such as brittle failure and ductile failure are observed
in the study. At low temperature failure of pipes occurs with almost no swelling
of the pipe due to their brittle nature,. while as the temperature rises, the ductility
of pipe material rises and the failure of pipes occurs with swelling effect.
The calculated values of mean hoop stress obtained from the experimental
data for the PVCpipes are shown with the available results of hoop stress for high
density polyethylene ( HDPE ) pipes.
