PCCP DESIGN CHECK USING C304-92 IN A SPREADSHEET

The manufacture of prestressed concrete cylinder pipe (PCCP) has been governed by AWWA C-301 for several decades. The pipe suppliers used either Method A or Method B to help the design engineer and the owner design and specify PCCP for major water transmission and sewer force main projects. Numerous owners and design engineers began to question the validity of these over-simplified design curves in the appendices of AWWA C-301, particularly when the pipe intended to last forever or long time was falling apart. American Concrete Pressure Pipe Association (ACPPA) and its members responded to this criticism by developing a pair of new standards, namely AWWA C301 and C304, to address material properties and design methodology. The design steps involved in C304 are so complicated that ACPPA had an elaborate computer software developed to implement C304 for designers of this pipe. In most cases, the software was purchased primarily by the pipe manufacturers who belong to the ACPPA and either they would run design analyses for interested parties or ACPPA would sell a copy of the software for an enormous fee. The authors of this paper were experts on a number of lawsuits involving PCCP failures and came across the above problems. As part of the discovery phases for the members in the legal profession, the authors developed a simple spreadsheet based on C304-92 to check the structural adequacy of PCCP lines designed to the old C301-72 to C301-84 design standards rather efficiently. This paper provides an overview of this approach and a sample application of this spreadsheet for specific PCCP projects to illustrate the point that an adequate design methodology does not necessarily have to be complicated.

• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/isbn/0784403724
• Corporate Authors:

  American Society of Civil Engineers

  1801 Alexander Bell Drive
  Reston, VA  United States  20191-4400
• Authors:
  • Jeyapalan, J K
  • Rajah, S K
• Conference:
  • Pipelines in the Constructed Environment
  • Location: San Diego, California
  • Date: 1998-8-23 to 1998-8-27
• Publication Date: 1998

Language

• English

Media Info

• Features: Figures; References; Tables;
• Pagination: p. 646-655

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Concrete pipe; Design; Prestressed concrete; Sewer pipe; Software; Spreadsheets; Water pipelines
• Uncontrolled Terms: Prestressed concrete cylinder pipe; Structural adequacy
• Subject Areas: Design; Pipelines;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00760429
• Record Type: Publication
• ISBN: 0784403724
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Mar 8 1999 12:00AM