case study
HSCR PE100 pipeline in the mountains
of Afghanistan
The background
New water supply for drought prone city in the
highlands of Afghanistan
A new polyethylene water pipeline was required
to link the city of Puli-khumri in the highlands of
northern Afghanistan with a reservoir. The city,
which is the capital of Baghlan Province, is high
in the Hindu Kush mountain range at an altitude
of around 1,700 metres. The population of the city
has grown rapidly over recent years and is now
over 60,000 and therefore an additional source of
water is very welcome in this area which is prone to
severe droughts and the integrity of the pipeline is
paramount.
The challenge
Highly critical water pipeline needs to be installed
in rocky area
This water pipeline is clearly strategic in this water
starved region of the world and the pipeline will
have to be laid in the rocky ground without imported
backfill, which would be both expensive and difficult
to organise in this remote area. Fichtner, the German
consulting engineers, clearly needed reassurance
that the lifetime of the pipe would not be prejudiced
by these challenging conditions.
The solution
New HSCR PE100 material from Borouge provides
necessary assurance
The solution was for the local Borouge customer,
the High Standard Pipe Company to produce the
180 and 250mm SDR11 pipes from the new High
Stress Crack Resistant (HSCR) PE100 material
BorSafe™ HE3490-LS-H. This provided the
consulting engineers with sufficient assurance
that despite the rocky conditions any point loads
produced by any rocks in the backfill around the
pipe would not cause premature failure of the
pipeline by stress cracking.
This improved performance of BorSafe HE3490LS-H has been developed by selecting the optimum
co-monomer and polymerisation conditions for
the production of the polymer. This creates a
polyethylene material with an extremely tough
structure which inhibits crack growth from gouges
and scores on the surface or from the presence
of point loads from rocks and debris in the
surrounding soil. For example in notched pipe
tests the performance is over ten times the 500
hour required for standard PE100 pipes, which
makes it ideal for manufacturing pipes for insertion
replacement, directional drilling or laying in difficult
soil conditions.
The benefits
Whilst all PE100 pipelines are lightweight, weldable
and tough, in certain demanding installation
conditions the additional reassurance provided
by high stress crack resistant materials is a major
benefit to system designers and operators. For
this strategically important pipeline in this drought
prone region the use of BorSafe HE3490-LS-H HSCR
PE100 material was sufficient to enable sieved
“as-dug” material to be used as backfill, which
enabled the pipeline to be installed in an efficient
and cost effective manner.
As Dr. Qadir Latify, the General Manager of the
High Standard Pipe Company explained: “We use
the latest technology to produce products to the
highest international specifications so were pleased
to work with the latest material from Borouge
to provide the highest level of security for this
important pipeline.”
Summary table
Customer Name
High Standard Pipe Company
Application/Product
A strategic large diameter water supply main
Grade(s) Used
BorSafe™ HE3490-LS-H
Functional Requirements
• Critical pipeline requires high security
• Can cope with stony backfill conditions
Benefits
•
•
•
•
•
•
Flexible and lightweight
Welded leak free joints
Corrosion resistant
Easy to handle and install
High durability pipeline
Can handle the point loads from stones in backfill
Borouge© 2011 04 PF CAST 189 R GB BRG
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as to the accuracy or completeness of the information contained herein, and assume no responsibility regarding the consequences of its use or for any printing errors. It is the customer’s
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