Development of a New High Performance PE pressure pipe system, from

design phase to reality

-Guido Kania, REHAU
Senior Manager R&D, Civil and Underground Engineering
-Robin Bresser, Borealis
Marketing manager, Business Unit Pipe
-Christophe Salles, Borealis
Application Marketing Manager Drinking Water & Gas, Business Unit Pipe

Abstract
Since the introduction of the first PE pipe more than 40 years ago, PE raw material
producers and pipe producers have continuously joined their efforts to propose better and
better pressure pipe solutions to the end-users and installers.
The development of modern installation techniques, in particular trenchless technologies,
has created a need for improved systems, with enhanced insensitivity to installation
conditions.
Rehau and Borealis, have gathered their respective long expertise and knowledge in PE
pipes and raw materials to develop a new pipe system with outstanding crack resistance to
meet new market expectations and needs.
This paper will describe the different steps the two companies have passed together, from
analysis of the market needs to the first actual projects of the newly created
RAUPROTECTII solution.

Keywords:
Slow Crack Growth, sandless bedding installation, trenchless technologies ,
RAUPROTECT II RAUSISTO, BorsafeHE3490-LS-H

1. INTRODUCTION
Among many applications, Polyethylene (PE) pipes are used worldwide for water supply
and gas distribution, contributing significantly to improve the reliability and the quality of
the networks.
Since the first pipe productions almost 50 years ago, PE has developed an impressive
successful track record, and is today the preferred choice for these applications.
Ease of installation, low maintenance and corrosion free are some of the well-known
reasons for this success story.
Another key reason is the constant efforts of both raw materials producers and pipe
producers for improved quality and reliability.
After the development of HDPE pipe materials like PE63 and then PE80, the first PE100
materials arrived on the market at the end of the 1980s. These materials were a real
milestone in the development of HDPE pipe materials because they facilitated the use of
higher service pressures or pipes having thinner wall at the same service pressures and at
the same time they also offered the end-user other advantages such as high resistance to
Slow Crack Growth and high resistance to Rapid Crack Propagation.
 1st 2nd 3rd 3rd
Generation Generation Generation Generation
HDPE HDPE HDPE HDPE
Pipe installed 1965 1975 1990 1990
since
Classification PE63 PE80 PE80 PE100
Design stress 5.0 MPa 6.3 MPa 6.3 MPa 8.0 MPa
Stage II knee 100-300 H 1000-3000 >10 000 >10 000
point 80C
Notch test, 4,6 10 100-200 >1000 >1000
Mpa/80C
Rapid crack <3 bar <3 bar >10 bar >10 bar
propagation/Pc
110SDR11
Figure 1: evolution of pipe properties

Pipes made from these modern materials are considered as perfectly adapted to classic
installation conditions: open trench with sand-bedding of the pipe, and refill of the trench
with carefully chosen reinstatement materials.

However, the last 10 years have seen new challenges for pipes, with the development of
new installation techniques.

2. NEW DEMANDING INSTALLATION CONDITIONS

2.1Trenchless installation technologies:
Lot of modern techniques ( pipe bursting, directional drilling, relining,etc) have been
developed combining faster and cheaper installation ( up to 60% less than traditional type
of installation), with also minimize disturbance to the neighbourhood, the latest benefit
being specially important in urban areas. They offer new possibilities for relining or
replacing of old pipelines. PE, due to its properties, is the reference material for these
installation methods.
But these techniques can happen to be more aggressive and demanding to pipe materials,
which can be in contact with hard or sharp objects.
 Figure 2: Trenchless Technologie Spiderplow laying
RAUPROTECT II d110 SDR11

2.2 Sandless bedding

There is also a clear trend, over different European countries, in the case of installation
in open trenches, to move from the traditional sand-bed laying to sandless bedding and to
re-use as-dug material as backfill material to fill-up the trench after installation of the pipe
system.
Depending of the type of soil in the specific area of installation, higher stresses can be
created to the pipes

Figure 3: RAUPROTECT II gas pipe without sand embedding

These new demanding conditions have pushed for the development of PE materials with
improved properties, in particular their Slow Crack Growth Resistance, and
subsequently of new pipe systems to take the best of these better materials, sometimes in
the form of multilayer pipes; these multilayer pipe systems can provide solutions to
practical problems while offering maximum security in installation and jointing at minimum
additional cost. Combining the best materials to meet specific loading conditions in the
structure, they provide protection and long term durability.

Directional drilling operations

Increase demand of Pipe bursting & relining
installation type
Close fit-site deform -Swagelining
Close fit systems / deformed pipe
Slip lining DI or concrete pipes
No sand backfill/stony soil
Standard bedding /open trench

Figure 4: increasing demanding installation conditions

3.SLOW CRACK GROWTH RESISTANCE OF PE PIPES:

In a practical way, two main situations can initiate slow crack growth phenomenon in a
pressure PE pipe:
- The first one is scratches or notches created at the outside surface of the pipe before
installation with improper handling or storage, or during installation when the pipe can be
accidentally damaged.
The common rules of practice mention that pipes showing an external scratch of more
than 10% of the wall-thickness should not be installed, for safety reasons; in practice, we
cannot rule-out the possibility that some damages on the construction site are not
detected during quality control procedures before installation of the pipe.
-The second main cause is point-load: an external local stress is created at the surface
of the pipe for example by a rock pressing directly against the pipe wall.
With time, this rock will create a stress concentration at the opposite inner surface of the
pipe, which, combined with the internal pressure, will eventually propagate through the
pipe wall, from the inside to the outside.
 PE80 Source: Hessel Ingenieurtechnik GmbH, Roetgen

Figure 5: Slow crack propagation caused by external point load

4. DEVELOPMENT OF A NEW PE MATERIAL WITH OUSTANDING RESISTANCE TO

SLOW CRACK GROWTH
4.1 Optimizing the raw material: the polymerization process
In the pipe business the flexibility of the bimodal (or multimodal) process for producing
polyethylene materials has provided the greatest scope for producing tailor-made
materials. The choice of catalyst, comonomer type-, content-, and selective distribution
thereof in the polymer chains, and the selection of process parameters in each reactor all
effect the development of the polymer structure and the properties of the end product.
Changing these variables enable the properties to be optimized for a manufacturing
process or end use application.

The bimodal process consists of two polymerization reactors in series. Figure 1, shows a
simplified view of the basic principles of the bimodal process. The Borstar low pressure
slurry loop and gas phase reactor process is illustrated. The catalyst is fed into the first
reactor, where polymer is formed as powder particles through polymerization of the
ethylene monomer and suitable amounts of comonomer, continuing in a series mode into
the second reactor.
 Figure 6: Bimodal Borealis Borstar polymerisation process

The principal advantages of the process are:

Independent control is applied to the reactors to steer comonomer distribution and to
tailor molecular weight distribution (MWD).
Flashing between the reactors guarantees independent reaction mixture compositions.
A wide density range, from LLDPE to HDPE can be produced.
Different comonomers can be incorporated according to needs, e.g. butene or hexene.
The MFR2 of the different reactors can be varied across a very broad range, from
<<0.1 to more than 1000 g/10min.
The process offers great flexibility with regard to the type of comonomer which can be
incorporated into the correct regions of the polymer. For example, the use of the
comonomer hexene in the bimodal Borstar process results in polymers having
extremely high resistance to Slow Crack Growth.

4.2 BorsafeHE3490-LS-H
With the help of the Borstar process and according to the description in the previous
section, it has been possible to create a material which enables the pipe producer to make
any dimension from 20mm to up to more than 2000mm and wall thicknesses of >100mm.
Not only does this material provide the possibility to make any pipe dimension, it also
possesses an excellent resistance to impact failures e.g. Rapid Crack Propagation, and
excellent resistance to internal pressure manifested by the PE100 designation according
to ISO 9080 standard extrapolation method.

Resistance to slow crack growth(SCG)

We have seen before that SCG is a key parameter when in comes to lifetime of the pipes;
we are now able to demonstrate that this new material has taken yet another step of at
least one decade in the resistance to slow crack growth in the notched pipe test. However
we can show not only that but also an unprecedented resistance to SCG in all of the tests
to which the material has been subjected until now.
Test Standard Test Result Requirement
conditions
NPT (a) ISO 13479 80C / 9,2 bar > 18000 h 165 h 1
500h 2
FNCT (b) ISO DIS 16770- 80C / 4 MPa / ca. 6000 h >3500 h3
3 Arkopal
ACT (c ) 90C / NM-5 ca. 4000 h 330 hrs 4
PENT (d) ASTM F-1473 80C / 4,4 MPa >10000 hours 50 hrs
a) Notched Pipe Test b) Full Notch Creep Test c) Accelerated Creep Test
d) Pennsylvania University Notch Test

1 = EN 1555 and EN 12201 requirement

2 = PE100+ association requirement
3 = DVGW requirement for sandless bedding
4 = Provisional DVGW requirement for sandless bedding

Figure 7: Summary of test results for BorsafeHE3490-LS-H

5. THE RAUPROTECT II RAUSISTO PIPE SYSTEM

5.1 The challenge
The increasing demand for heavy-duty gas, potable water and sewer pipes suitable for the
modern and cost-effective trenchless technologies, as described earlier, pushed the pipe
manufacturer REHAU to develop a new pipe system solution, able to provide a high safety
level to the pipe installer and to the end-user even in the most demanding conditions :The
RAUPROTECT II RAUSISTO system.

Figure8: REHAU RAUPROTECT II RAUSISTO pipes for gas, water and sewage
The challenge given to Rehaus development engineers to design this completely new
system solution was based on:
- the demonstrated technical fact that higher stress concentration is located at the
opposite inner surface of the pipe while external point loads and internal pressure
are combined during the whole lifetime of the pipe system.
- The requirement for this new pipe to keep the traditional key benefits of PE pipes,
e.g. flexibility, ease of installation and weldability .

5.2 The solution

To achieve an outstanding crack resistance meeting new market expectations and needs,
REHAU have then chosen to use BorsafeHE3490-LS-H , the best available PE100 VRC
-Quality ( VRC= Very Resistant to Crack) available on the market for the co-
extrusion of a thick inside layer of a smooth pressure pipe dimensioned according to the
the established European standards EN 12201 / EN 1555 / EN 13244.
This material combination of best PE100+ association-grades for the outside layer with
BorsafeHE3490-LS-H on the inside layer brings a cost-effective, technical superior pipe
system quality to the market that fulfills all the market expectations. The well-know testing
institute Dr. Hessel Ingenieurtechnik in Roetgen-Germany confirmed that the
RAUPROTECT II RAUSISTO system solution based on BorsafeHE3490-LS-H showed
best results against point loads and can therefore be used without risks for trenchless
technologies and in trenches without sand embedding.
Another advantage worth mentioning for the installer and end-user is that RAUPROTECT
II RAUSISTO pipes, can be installed as standard PE pipe: in particular, they can be
butt-fused or jointed with standard-fittings and welding parameters. No expensive special
tooling for the removing of outside protection layers is necessary.

5.3 Innovative traceability:

Together with long life-time expectation , traceability and easy identification of the pipe
after installation are becoming to be perceived as highly important.
To improve the traceability of that heavy-duty pipe system, REHAU has decided to marks
all RAUPROTECT II RAUSISTO pipes with durable, laser -marked traceability-Barcode
according ISO 12176-4 (Code 128, type C) and ISO 13950. Every produced meter of
RAUPROTECT II RAUSISTO can now be easily tracked and welded with modern welding
equipment to make pipe laying in the trench more easy and safe than ever before.

Figure 9: Traceability-Barcode according ISO 12176-4 (Code 128, type C) and ISO 13950
5.4 Field test: Gas pipe installation in Holzthaleben / Germany
One of the first important projects using the new developed RAUPROTECT pipe system
was in Holzthaleben in Germany.
The gas distribution company E.ON has chosen this system for a new gas distribution
system, installed in very demanding conditions: the pipes had to be installed in very tough
rocky soil , using horizontal drilling and ploughing-in installation techniques.
2,4 km of pipes diameter 63 SDR11 and 2,3 km of diameter 110 SDR 11 have been
successfully installed for that project.

Figure 10: Horizontal directional drilling in rocky area

Figure 11: Ploughing-in of RAUPROTECT II

using Equipment of Frank Fckersperger Company
One year after the installation, a routine TV-inspection on the performance of the installed
RAUPROTECT II Pipe System took place. The gas pipeline showed no signs of wear,
tear, deflection and point loads. All internal pressure testings have been successfully
fulfilled.

6.CONCLUSION
PE pressure pipes systems are designed for a longlife time, and are showing today the
best leakage statistics compared with
They have proven, since several decades to offer a safe solution for gas and drinking
water distribution, contributing to protect these precious fluids. They are in particular
showing the best leakage statistics among all pipe materials.
One of the key reasons for this success is the innovation potential shown by both PE raw
material producers and pipe producers; recently, a new market need for tougher materials
for installation in demanding conditions has pushed for the development of a new
generation of pipes.
The new RAUPROTECT II RAUSISTO system, based on the combination of
BorSafeHE3490-LS-H, a new PE100 material with outstanding resistance to slow crack
growth and modern state-of-the-art pipe-design will continue to secure the safe transport
and distribution of potable water and gas for generations to come!