Sewer Materials

SEWER MATERIALS

1. Important Factors Considered for Selecting Material

Following factors should be considered before selecting material for manufacturing sewer pipes:

a. Resistance to Corrosion: Sewer carries wastewater that releases gases such as H,S. This gas in contact with moisture can be converted into sulfuric acid. The 10 nogen formation of acids can lead to the corrosion of sewer pipe. Hence, selection of jabnuong corrosion resistance material is must for long life of pipe.

b. Resistance to Abrasion: Sewage contain considerable amount of suspended solids, part of which are inorganic solids such as sand or grit. These particles moving at high velocity can cause wear and tear of sewer pipe internally. This abrasion can reduce thickness of pipe and reduces hydraulic efficiency of the sewer by making the interior surface rough.

C. Strength and Durability: The sewer pipe should have sufficient strength to withstand all the forces that are likely to come on them. Sewers are subjected to considerable external loads of backfill material and traffic load, if any. They are not subjected to internal pressure of water. To withstand external load safely without failure, sufficient wall thickness of pipe or reinforcement is essential. In addition, the material selected should be durable and should have sufficient resistance against natural weathering action to provide longer life to the pipe.

d. Weight of the Material: The material selected for sewer should have less specific weight, which will make pipe light in weight. The lightweight pipes are easy for handling and transport.

e. Imperviousness: To eliminate chances of sewage seepage from sewer to surrounding, the material selected for pipe should be impervious.

f. Economy and Cost: Sewer should be less costly to make the sewerage scheme economical.

g. Hydraulically efficient: The sewer shall have smooth interior surface to have less frictional coefficient.

 

Materials for Sewers

Asbestos Cement Sewers

• These are manufactured from a mixture of asbestos fibers, silica and cement. Asbestos fibers are thoroughly mixed with cement to act as reinforcement.

• These pipes are available in size 10 to 100 cm internal diameter and length up to 4.0 m.

• These pipes can be easily assembled without skilled labour with the help of special gnuto coupling, called 'Ring Tie Coupling' or Simplex joint.

• The pipe and joints are resistant to corrosion and the joints are flexible to permit 12° deflection for curved laying.

• These pipes are used for vertical transport of water. For example, transport of rainwater from roofs in multistoried buildings, for transport of sewage to grounds, and for transport of less foul sullage i.e., wastewater from kitchen and bathroom.

Advantages

• These pipes are light in weight and hence, easy to carry and transport.

 • Easy to cut and assemble without skilled labour.

• Interior is smooth (Manning's n = 0.011) hence, can make excellent hydraulically efficient sewer.

Disadvantages

• These pipes are structurally not very strong.

• These are susceptible to corrosion by sulphuric acid. When bacteria produce H₂S, in presence of water, H₂,SO₄ can be formed leading to corrosion of pipe material.

 

Plain Cement Concrete or Reinforced Cement Concrete

Plain Cement Concrete (1: 1.5: 3) pipes are available up to 0.45 m diameter and reinforcement cement pipes are available up to 1.8 m diameter. These pipes can be cast in situ or precast pipes.

Precast pipes are better in quality than the cast in situ pipes. The reinforcement in these pipes can be different such as single cage reinforced pipes, used for internal pressure less than 0.8 m; double cage reinforced pipes used for both internal and external pressure greater than 0.8 m; elliptical cage reinforced pipes used for larger diameter sewers subjected to external pressure; and Hume pipes with steel shells coated with concrete from inside and outside. Nominal

longitudinal reinforcement of 0.25% is provided in these pipes.

Advantages of Concrete Pipes

• Strong in tension as well as compression.

• Resistant to erosion and abrasion.

• They can be made of any desired strength.

• Easily molded, and can be in situ or precast pipes.

• Economical for medium and large sizes.

• These pipes are available in wide range of size and the trench can be opened and backfilled rapidly during maintenance of sewers.

Disadvantages

• These pipes can get corroded and pitted by the action of H2SO4.

• The carrying capacity of the pipe reduces with time because of corrosion.

• The pipes are susceptible to erosion by sewage containing silt and grit.

The concrete sewers can be protected internally by vitrified clay linings. With protection lining they are used for almost all the branch and main sewers. Only high alumina cement concrete should be used when pipes are exposed to corrosive liquid like sewage.

 

Vitrified Clay or Stoneware Sewers

These pipes are used for house connections as well as lateral sewers. The size of the pipe available is 5 cm to 30 cm internal diameter with length 0.9 to 1.2 m. These pipes are rarely manufactured for diameter greater than 90 cm. These are joined by bell and spigot flexible compression joints.

Advantages

•  Resistant to corrosion, hence fit for carrying polluted water such as sewage.

• Interior surface is smooth and is hydraulically efficient.

• The pipes are highly impervious.

• These pipes are durable and economical for small diameters.

• The pipe material does not absorb water more than 5% of their own weight, when immersed in water for 24 h.

Disadvantages

• Heavy, bulky and brittle and hence, difficult to transport.

• These pipes cannot be used as pressure pipes, because they are weak in tension.

• These require large number of joints as the individual pipe length is small.

 

Brick Sewers

This material is used for construction of large size combined sewer or particularly for storm water drains. The pipes are plastered from outside to avoid entry of tree roots and roundwater through brick joints. These are lined from inside with stone ware or ceramic block to make them smooth and hydraulically efficient. Lining also makes the pipe resistant to corrosion.

 

Cast Iron Sewers

These pipes are stronger and capable to withstand greater tensile, compressive, as well as bending stresses. However, these are costly. Cast iron pipes are used for outfall sewers, rising mains of pumping stations, and inverted siphons, where pipes are running under pressure. These are also suitable for sewers under heavy traffic load, such as sewers below railways and highways. They are used for carried over piers in case of low lying areas. They form 100% leak proof sewer line to avoid groundwater contamination. They are less resistant to corrosion; hence, generally lined from inside with cement concrete, coal tar paint, epoxy, etc. These are joined together by bell and spigot joint. IS:1536-1989 and IS:1537-1976 provides the specifications for spun and vertically cast pipes, respectively.

 

Steel Pipes

These are used under the situations such as pressure main sewers, under water crossing, bridge crossing, necessary connections for pumping stations, laying pipes over self supporting spans, railway crossings, etc. They can withstand internal pressure, impact load and vibrations much better than CI pipes. They are more ductile and can withstand water hammer pressure better. These pipes cannot withstand high external load and these pipes may collapse when negative pressure is developed in pipes. They are susceptible to corrosion and are not generally used for partially flowing sewers. They are protected internally and externally against the action of corrosion.

 

Ductile Iron Pipes

Ductile iron pipes can also be used for conveying the sewers. They demonstrate higher capacity to withstand water hammer. The specifications for DI pipes is provided in IS:12288- 1987. The predominant wall material is ductile iron, a spheroidized graphite cast iron. Internally these pipes are coated with cement mortar lining or any other polyethylene or poly wrap or plastic bagging/sleeve lining to inhibit corrosion from the wastewater being conveyed, and various types of external coating are used to inhibit corrosion from the environment. Ductile iron has proven to be a better pipe material than cast iron but they are costly. Ductile iron is still believed to be stronger and more fracture resistant material. However, like most ferrous materials it is susceptible to corrosion. A typical life expectancy of thicker walled pipe could be up to 75 years, however with the current thinner walled ductile pipe the life could be about 20 years in highly corrosive soils without a corrosion control program like cathodic protection.

 

Plastic Sewers (PVC pipes)

Plastic is recent material used for sewer pipes. These are used for internal drainage works in house. These are available in sizes 75 to 315 mm external diameter and used in drainage works.

They offer smooth internal surface. The additional advantages they offer are resistant to corrosion, light weight of pipe, economical in laying, jointing and maintenance, the pipe is tough and rigid, and ease in fabrication and transport of these pipes.

 

High Density Polythylene (HDPE) Pipes

Use of these pipes for sewers is recent development. They are not brittle like AC pipes and other pipes and hence hard fall during loading, unloading and handling do not cause any damage to the pipes. They can be joined by welding or can be jointed with detachable joints up to 630 mm diameter (IS:4984-1987). These are commonly used for conveyance of industrial wastewater.

They offer all the advantages offered by PVC pipes. PVC pipes offer very little flexibility and normally considered rigid; whereas, HDPE pipes are flexible hence best suited for laying in hilly and uneven terrain. Flexibility allows simple handling and installation of HDPE pipes. Because of low density, these pipes are very light in weight. Due to light in weight, they are easy for handling, this reduces transportation and installation cost. HDPE pipes are non corrosive and offer very smooth inside surface due to which pressure losses are minimal and also this material resist scale formation.

 

Glass Fiber Reinforced Plastic Pipes

This martial is widely used where corrosion resistant pipes are required. Glass fiber reinforced plastic (GRP) can be used as a lining material for conventional pipes to protect from internal or external corrosion. It is made from the composite matrix of glass fiber, polyester resin and fillers. These pipes have better strength, durability, high tensile strength, low density and high corrosion resistance. These are manufactured up to 2.4 m diameter and up to 18 m length (IS:12709-1989). Glass reinforced plastic pipes represent the ideal solution for transport of any kind of water, chemicals, effluent and sewage, because they combine the advantages of corrosion resistance with a mechanical strength which can be compared with the steel pipes. Typical properties that result in advantages in GRP pipes application can be summarized as follows:

• Light weight of pipes that allows for the use of light laying and transport means.

• Possibility of nesting of different diameters of pipe thus allowing additional saving ogic in transport cost.

• Length of pipe is larger than other pipe materials.

• Easy installation procedures due to the kind of mechanical bell and spigot joint.

• Corrosion resistance material, hence no protections such as coating, painting or cathodic are then necessary.

• Smoothness of the internal wall that minimizes the head loss and avoids the formation of deposits.

• High mechanical resistance due to the glass reinforcement.

• Absolute impermeability of pipes and joints both from external to internal and viceversa.

• Very long life of the material.

 

Lead Sewers

• They are smooth, soft and can take odd shapes.

• This pipe has an ability to resist sulphide corrosion.

• However, these pipes are very costly.

• These are used in house connection.