REINFORCED CONCRETE PRESSURE PIPE

REINFORCED CONCRETE PRESSURE PIPE

Concrete Properly Made and Sufficiently Reinforced Will Resist Safely Stresses up to 100 Pounds to Square Inch, According to the Author—New Type of Joint Illustrated—Method of Manufacture of the Pipe

Although concrete was used as long ago as 2300 years to build an aqueduct for the city of Carthage and later for the construction of aqueducts for Rome, it is only recently that pre-cast reinforced concrete pipe has been developed to meet the principal requirements of pressure lines. Experience gained lately shows that concrete properly made and sufficiently reinforced will resist safely internal and external stresses up to 100 pounds per square inch. Correct methods of manufacture will produce pipe with a low coefficient of friction, experience having shown that a greater discharge was obtained from concrete lines than was anticipated. Leakage through the walls of pre-cast pipe has been almost nil and leakage through the joints has been less than is usually allowable for water mains. As the construction of pipe lines is usually carried on at temperatures higher than that of the water which will flow through the conduits, it necessarily follows that contraction will occur. This will produce cracks at the joints through which considerable leakage will occur if provision has not been made to care for the contraction.