Pipe sizing research and worked examples

This work is summarised in a paper submitted to the Water Supply and Drainage Symposium hosted by the International Council for Research and Innovation in Building and Construction (CIB), now available as an ABCB resource.

Any changes proposed for NCC 2022 will be available in the Public Comment Draft of NCC 2022, available in early 2021.

Earlier this year the ABCB commissioned Lucid Consulting Engineers to create worked examples of Performance Solutions that meet an earlier version of the quantified Performance Requirement. The intention was illustrating changes an updated Performance Requirement may enable in the design of plumbing systems.

Predicted differences compared to a Deemed-to-Satisfy design are significant. In the example buildings, design flowrates for pipework decreased by 30-40% and predicted pipework costs were 10% lower on average, while meeting the required performance. The full worked examples are now available as an ABCB resource.

Note: the Performance Requirement the worked examples are based on is likely to be updated to a slightly more conservative requirement to match the CIB paper. This will result in slightly larger pipework than the worked examples where pipes serve few fixtures and similarly sized pipework in pipes serving many fixtures. Nevertheless, the worked examples provide an indication of how the design of cold and heated water systems in Australia may be impacted by the proposed quantified Performance Requirement.

Further information is available on the ABCB’s broader project to increase the competent use of performance.