The frequent use of high-density polyethylene pipes over the last decades has been possible because these pipes are lightweight, corrosion resistant, unlikely to have leaks, and are low cost. The chain structure of the polymer, the extrusion and cooling conditions, the resulting morphology and the ambient conditions all play an important role in the pipe's performance. A new generation of high density polyethylene resins has improved the performance of pipes, but brought new challenges to their testing and characterization. There is a need to understand the rheological behavior of the resins, their processing, and their associated properties in a finished pipe.
The rheological behavior of the resins was studied to characterize the effect of high molecular weight tails in a bimodal molecular weight distribution. The use of cone-and-plate and parallel-plate geometries in a rheometer provided simple flow that characterized the steady and dynamical response of the polymer melts. The rheological measurements detected differences in the resins: the resin with higher molecular weight tail showed increased zero shear-rate viscosity, a much slower relaxation of stresses and a resin that more readily deviates from linear viscoelastic behavior. The rheology of the resins allowed modeling their flow through different extrusion dies. The flow channels for pipe dies are thick, so velocities and shear rates are low. Using a different die had a larger impact in shear rates and stresses compared to using different resins. The resin with higher molecular weight shows much higher shear stresses for the same die and temperature, which makes processing harder.
The flow of a fluid through a pipe causes constant stress, which at long enough times is one the reasons for pipe failure. Tests that characterize the service lifetime of pipes take long times and are expensive. Dynamical mechanical analysis allows characterizing the viscoelastic properties of the pipe and creep testing confirms that shift factors work for viscoelastic properties measured inde-pendently. For the characterized pipes, one hour of testing at 80 °C is equivalent to a month of test-ing at 25 °C. This works characterizes pipes made from two resins and two different dies. The meas-urements showed that the pipes were statistically the same. / Doctor of Philosophy / The use of high-density polyethylene pipes has thrived over the last decades. This has been possible because these pipes are lightweight, corrosion resistant, unlikely to have leaks, and are low cost. The structure of the polymer and the manufacturing process both affect the pipe's performance. A new generation of high density polyethylene resins has improved the performance of the pipes, but brought new challenges to their testing and characterization. There is a need to understand the flow characteristics of the resins and their properties as a finished pipe.
The flow behavior of the polymers in simple geometries gave insights into the polymer's structure. A higher molecular weight resin showed increased resistance to flow and deviated from ideal behavior more readily. These flow characteristics let one model certain aspects of the manufacturing process. Pipe manufacturing is a slow process because of the high resistance to flow of the polymer. Changing the processing equipment, and to a minor degree changing the resins, had an important impact in the manufacturing process.
The tests that characterize the service lifetime of pipes take long times and are expensive. When pipes have fluids flowing at high pressures, it takes decades for them to fail. There are viscoelastic tests that allow much quicker characterization of pipes and help predict their long term behavior. This works characterizes pipes made from two resins and two different dies. This works characterizes pipes made from two resins and two different dies. The measurements showed that the pipes were statistically the same.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:VTETD/oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/96454 |
| Date | 15 January 2020 |
| Creators | Pretelt Caceres, Juan Antonio |
| Contributors | Chemical Engineering, Baird, Donald G., Davis, Richey M., Case, Scott W., Martin, Stephen Michael |
| Publisher | Virginia Tech |
| Source Sets | Virginia Tech Theses and Dissertation |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Dissertation |
| Format | ETD, application/pdf, application/x-zip-compressed |
| Rights | In Copyright, http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ |
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