An active building has many service water systems in use for HVAC purposes and many different materials in those system a for “corrosion-free” containment. All materials are expected to last for the useful life of the building. This paper addresses the methods used to thoroughly evaluate these systems using nondestructive and destructive techniques in an attempt to establish a service life so life extension can be considered or system replacement budgeted.

Introduction

Piping systems represent the arteries of every building. Without piping systems, buildings could not cool, heat, ventilate, humidify, supply water, supply energy, remove waste products, or be protected from fire.

Buildings require piping just as the human body does. The body’s arteries and veins are analogous to the to building supplyand return piping which make up the assorted plumbing and waste disposal systems. It is critically important to be able to evaluate the condition of water-carrying and fuel/steam/process pipes in buildings. The object of these evaluations is to determine the extent of any deterioration that may have occurred, establish the cause(s) of this deterioration, and provide information needed to make informed decisions concerning future operations to protect the building.

In this paper we will review ways in which piping can be evaluated to determine its condition. Obviously, for any inspection data to be useful, the pipe samples to be tested must be representative of the system under study. Many variables affect both the sampling and testing of building piping systems. Selection of the proper teal methods, use of correct procedures, and careful interpretation of the data are critical to obtaining representative and reliable information.

Piping systems can be inspected by both destructive and nondestructive methods. Destructive inspection techniques are the most costly, because they involve removal of pipe from the system. However, destructive methods generally produce definitive information ah-d the condition of the piping system, assuming that the pipe samples submitted for inspection are representative of the system. Sometimes, destructive tasting is the only way to verify the data obtained nondestructively.

Nondestructive techniques, on the other hand, are inherently non-invasive and usually allow the building piping systems being examined to remain on-line during the inspection. Important and very useful information about the condition of piping systems can be collected by nondestructive methods. In many cases, this information can be sufficient to permit good decision-making without the need for destructive examinations.

NONDESTRUCTIVE INSPECTION TECHNIQUES

The first and most obvious nondestructive inspection technique is visual inspection. This requires access to the interior of the piping system. That is, drain a section of piping and leek inside.

This can be done in many ways – directly, by opening and looking into the pipe, or remotely, through borescopes, fiberscopes or video cameras that are sent into or otherwise inserted into the piping system.

Visual inspection techniques have advantages and disadvantages. The primary advantage is that the condition of the coatings or deposits on the pipe surface-s can be seen in-situ…

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