New Technical Guide Helps Engineers Design HDPE Water Mains for Seismic Fault Crossings

IRVING, TX — The HDPE Municipal Advisory Board (MAB) has launched a new technical doc outlining design necessities for high-density polyethylene (HDPE) water mains crossing seismic faults. The 38-web page publication, MAB-10 2025: Design of HDPE Water Mains for Crossing Seismic Hazard, supplies formulation, calculations, charts and evaluation describing how pipelines reply to strike-slip seismic occasions.

The doc enhances the beforehand launched MAB-9: Design of HDPE Water Mains for the Lateral Unfold Seismic Hazard, with each publications out there free by way of the Plastics Pipe Institute website.

Engineering Steerage for Seismic Pipeline Design

“As requested by a number of house owners and consultants, the Municipal Advisory Board developed this doc to help in the design of HDPE for the anticipated fault crossing seismic occasion,” acknowledged Camille George Rubeiz, P.E., F. ASCE, Co-Chair, HDPE Municipal Advisory Board, and Vice President for the Municipal & Industrial Division of the Plastics Pipe Institute.

The MAB serves as an impartial, non-business adviser to the Municipal & Industrial Division of the Plastics Pipe Institute, the main North American commerce affiliation representing the plastic pipe trade.

“In MAB-10 2025, easy relations are developed for the required wall thickness for an HDPE water foremost topic to the fault crossing seismic hazard,” he continued.

Understanding Seismic Hazards Affecting Buried Pipelines

In accordance to the report, two main seismic hazards have an effect on buried pipelines: wave propagation (WP) and everlasting floor deformation (PGD). The fault crossing hazard described in MAB-10 focuses on situations the place floor motion instantly impacts a pipeline.

Design necessities outlined in the report present that wall thickness is influenced by website situations such as burial depth and soil unit weight, as properly as the allowable pipe pressure and geometric traits of the fault. These embody the quantity of fault displacement and the angle at which the pipeline crosses the fault.

HDPE Pipe Efficiency and Set up Benefits

HDPE pipe is typically chosen for water infrastructure in difficult situations due to its flexibility and ductility. Warmth-fused pipe sections create a leak-free, monolithic pipeline that can higher accommodate floor motion in contrast with inflexible pipe supplies.

The materials additionally resists corrosion and is not topic to tuberculation, serving to keep long-time period water stream capability. HDPE water mains can be put in utilizing a vary of trenchless and open-minimize building strategies, offering flexibility for municipal infrastructure tasks.

Business Collaboration in Growing the Information

Growth of MAB-10 concerned a volunteer process power of engineers, utility professionals, contractors and trade specialists. The effort was led by Michael O’Rourke, Professor Emeritus of Civil Engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

The publication is meant to present engineers, utilities and infrastructure planners with sensible steering for designing HDPE pipelines succesful of withstanding seismic fault crossing hazards.

MAB-10 plus different paperwork will be discovered at www.plasticpipe.org/MABpub.