I'm trying to get my arms around a really interesting problem at a local jail where a 7 year old sprinkler system is failing at a variety of spots due to corrosion. I looked at the system this morning and here's what I found:
1) The failures are happening at 1" 90's and tee's where a drop goes down into a cell or the concrete ceiling of a common area below 2) The exterior of the fitting and the drop look horrible and are rusting off in piles of rust which are sitting at the base of the drop 3) The fittings are Chinese and the pipe is threadable thinwall - I think this might be part of the problem 4) The threads seems to extend too far outside of the fittings - over an inch in some spots 5) The water has been tested and apparently there is no MIC in the water but the water is mineral laden and fairly aggressive in this area 6) Most of the system looks perfectly fine with some light surface rust like normal - it's just maybe one in 20 drops with the corrosion issue I want to get the metallurgy of the Chinese fittings tested and a couple of the corroded pipe sections removed and tested to see what is going on. Does that scenario sound familiar to anyone. Any suggestions on labs to use for getting the pipe and water tested? This type of forensic analysis is pretty new to me. Thanks very much in advance, Steve Kowkabany, P.E. Fire Protection Engineer Neptune Fire Protection Engineering LLC 616 Davis Street Neptune Beach, FL 32266 904-652-4200 Phone 904-212-0868 Fax _______________________________________________ Sprinklerforum mailing list http://lists.firesprinkler.org/mailman/listinfo/sprinklerforum For Technical Assistance, send an email to: [email protected] To Unsubscribe, send an email to:[email protected] (Put the word unsubscribe in the subject field)
