Selection of pipe going fron river to cooling tower.

[martino6000]

Hi Everybody,please i have a question,do any body know the best kind of pipe (PVC;STEAL,fiber) for construction of pipline from river to cooling tower?
Thanks

 

[SAK9]

PVC and FRP are good choices.But PVC gets brittle when exposed to sunlight and might need to be buried.
Since you mentioned river,I take it that water will not be saline so galvanised pipe also can be used.

If budget allows, FRP would be the best choice I feel.

 

[SAK9]

HDPE is also a good alternative

 

[gmorin]

It depends on the diameter and distance you're going, as well as your water quality.

If you're 4" to 20" in diameter and underground, HDPE is probably the best choice. It's corrosion resistant and cheap to install if you have an experienced installer with the right equipment. I assume you'll have fairly low pump heads imposing internal pressure on the pipe.

Above ground, you can get into either FRP, carbon steel, or galvanized carbon steel, depending upon water quality, economics related to the diameter and distance, etc.

I'd only consider PVC in small diameters

 

[Montemayor]

A lot of people mention galvanized pipe, but they fail to identify if the galvanization is external or internal to the pipe - and the type of galvanization. If internal, how is galvanization assured during and after the field installation? Which galvanization method is being proposed: electroltic or hot-dipped? If external, what about protection from internal corrosion? Besides giving a terrible friction factor (& causing a higher pressure drop and more energy consumed) the internal or external galvanization is of little protection from corrosion if it is not hot-dipped. And how does one apply hot-dipped galvanization in the field on assembled pipe? The galvanization is only as effective as the weakest link - and there will numerous weak links after the field assembly - whether screwed or welded. The straw that breaks the galvanized camel's back is the fact that you have few inspection methods for checking the effectiveness of the galvanization in the field - except by ultimate corrosion failure. And, more importantly, what does one do if you were to magically inspect and discover your galvanized pipe was losing its internal coating? How do you hot-dip it the worn or about-to-fail sections?

Unless someone can offer some practical answers to the above, I would not contemplate galvanized pipe for this application. The only place I've ever used hot-dipped galvanization is on piping exposed to corrosion externally - such as from exposure to sea water atmosphere. An that has been in exposed, above-ground installations where one can visually inspect and coat/paint the inherent flaws that always appear in any galvanization application sooner-or-later.