The final report describes the input/output methodology used to estimate the total, presently reducible and future reducible costs of fracture, and the supplemental models used to establish the direct and indirect (including the costs of death, pain, and suffering from injury and environmental degradation) costs arising from fracture occurrence. Discussion of guidelines used to estimate these costs (e.g., "row rules") is amply provided. A complete set of the input/output tables was generated by BCL for this study [4]. Finally, the report identifies and highlights the total costs of fracture and the costs associated with about 15 fracture-sensitive sectors of the economy. ObjectivesThe objectives of the NBS/BCL study were:To assess the total cost of fracture in the U.S. economy. This total includes the costs associated with the occurrence of unintended fracture and the costs associated with the prevention of fracture. [5] and West Germany [6].These studies suggest that erosion and wear costs are at least 2 percent of the GNP's of those countries. It is apparent that material durability costs are substantial and probably about 10 percent of the GNP.The total costs of fracture or corrosion can be divided into costs of occurrence and costs of prevention. Occurrence includes those expenses attributed to the aftermath of unintended fracture or corrosion events. Prevention costs include research and development, inspection, design, packaging and handling, and repair and maintenance. There is a relation between occurrence and prevention costs. Greater allocation of resources to prevention tends to reduce the frequency (and, therefore cost) of occurrence. Schematically, this may be illustrated as shown in figure 3. Roughly 70 percent of the total cost of corrosion was found to be associated with occurrence; but in this study only about 20 percent of the total fracture costs were associated with actual failures.Effective technology transfer and research tends to move the curve on figure 3 toward zero. Figure 3 The disparity between the ratio of occurrence/prevention costs for fracture and corrosion is Costs of Prevention

No abstract

No abstract

This article is a guide for sprinkler contractors, facilities managers, and their technical advisors who sometimes have to deal with the consequences of iron-water corrosion inside pressurized, low-carbon steel fire protection systems that contain water. The consequences include: (1) pinhole leaks and (2) build-up of insoluble corrosion residues on the interior pipe wall that increases pipe friction losses. A reference is made to sections of the National Fire Codes/NFPA 13 that address pipe materials, protection of steel piping against corrosion, and pipe friction losses. Electrochemical metal-water corrosion processes that can occur inside pressurized, low-carbon steel fire protection systems that contain water are discussed, as is microbiologically influenced corrosion. Corrosion control measures arising from the electrochemical science underlying both metal-water corrosion and microbiologically influenced corrosion are suggested.

No abstract