Seismic Testing Of Piping Utilizing The Victaulic Grooved Piping System

Project Overview

Due to the emergence of new and updated seismic design and testing codes that apply to piping in seismic zones, as well as to demonstrate the performance of piping joined with Victaulic grooved couplings under state-of-the-art real-time seismic loading, Victaulic initiated a full-scale seismic testing program with Lehigh University’s ATLSS Center. The unique capabilities of the ATLSS Center NEES Facility, namely real-time and full-scale simulations provided the ideal test bed for the seismic simulations.

The testing served two purposes, namely (1) to demonstrate the ability of piping joined with Victaulic grooved couplings to maintain operational integrity during a major seismic event; and (2) to demonstrate that specialized isolation assemblies possess sufficient freedom-of-movement to accommodate the differential displacements at seismic separation joints. Two seismic separation joint assemblies were evaluated.

During all tests, the piping was found to have performed very well. In all cases, pressure in the pipeline was maintained and no leaks were observed. The results of this testing program will aid Victaulic and its customers to confidently design safe and reliable piping systems using Victaulic couplings in areas of high seismicity worldwide.