Design of HDD Installations Using American Design Standards and Locally Manufactured Polyethylene Pipe

Abstract

A measure of success of a Horizontal Directional Drilling (HDD) project was once simply pulling the pipe through to the other end of the bore. With improvements in installation technology and contractor capabilities, this should now not be an issue. A measure of success in 2015 for an HDD pipe installation is that the pipe will provide the required asset life. A key aspect of this is that the pipe is appropriately designed for the installation and is not subject to either short or long term loads that exceed its capacity. The American Standard ASTM F1962-11 is frequently used in Australia and New Zealand for the design of polyethylene pipe HDD installations and provides guidance on how to calculate loads acting on the pipe during and after installation and provides design parameters for different polyethylene pipe materials manufactured to relevant American standards. This paper examines the relevance, appropriateness and adequacy of these pipe parameters and provides recommendations for design using ASTM F1962-11 with pipe manufactured to the Australian and New Zealand standard AS/NZS 4130.

Techniques