There are two styles of service sinks (slop sinks): the trap-to-wall and the trap-to-floor. They are used for disposal of wash water, filling swab buckets, and washing out swabs. The trap-to-wall type requires a 2-inch or 3-inch waste pipe; the trap-to-floor, a 3-inch waste pipe. For both types, if copper tubing is used, a one size reduction is allowed.

Scullery sinks are large sheet metal sinks used for washing large pots and pans and for general scouring purposes. The large amount of grease that usually passes through a scullery sink makes a 2-inch waste pipe necessary.

Drinking fountains carry only clear water wastes and a 1 1/4-inch waste pipe is suitable. An indirect drain (covered later in this chapter) should be used.

Sizing Sanitary Collecting Sewers

The design and sizing of collecting sewers, the subtrunks, and the main trunk lines are provided by engineers. However, the UT should understand the factors that contribute to the design and the requirements that must be met.

While the unit system is used to size the building sanitary piping and the building drain, the sewage quantities used in sewer design normally are computed on a contributing population basis. The population to be used in design depends upon the type of area that the sewer is to serve. If the area is strictly residential, the design population is based on full occupancy of all quarters served. If the area is industrial, the design population is the greatest number employed in the area at any time. There are exceptions to the general rule that sewers must be designed on a population basis. Among these exceptions are laundry sewers and industrial-waste sewers. The per capita contribution for sewer design varies. Typical values are 100 gallons per person per day for permanent residents and 30 gallons per person in the industrial area per 8-hour period.

The sizing of the sewer includes the average rate and the extreme (peak) rate of flow (which occurs occasionally). The ratio of the peak rate of flow to the average rate of flow may vary with the area served, because the larger the area or the greater the number of persons served, the greater the tendency for flow to average out. Typical peak flows might range from 6 for small areas down to 1.5 for larger areas.

An allowance for infiltration of subsurface water is added to the peak flow to obtain the design flow. A typical infiltration allowance is 500 gallons per inch of pipe diameter, per mile of sewer per day.

Additional capacity to provide for population increase is usually included for areas that are likely to continue to develop. Provision of approximately 25 percent additional capacity over the initial requirements is advisable.

Each length of pipe from one manhole to the next is sized to carry the design flow. However, to help prevent clogging and to facilitate maintenance, a minimum size is usually specified which may be larger than is necessary to carry the design flow at the upper ends of the system. Typical minimum sizes are 6-inch pipe for house and industrial-waste sewers and 8-inch pipe for all other sewers.

It is sometimes the practice to select a pipe size that will carry the design flow when the pipe is half full, thus allowing for expansion. More often, however, sufficient safety factors in the future population estimate and the peak flow factor are included so the pipe may be designed to carry the design flow when flowing full.

The formulas or tables used in sizing the pipe are based on experiments and experience. One of the factors taken into account is the roughness of the pipe. Asbestos-cement pipe, for example, is smoother than concrete pipe. Because there is less friction on the inside of the asbestos-cement pipe, it will carry a greater flow than concrete pipe of the same size.

Another factor is the slope at which the pipe will be laid. The slope will generally be determined by the fall available on the natural ground area through which the sewer runs. The plans for collecting sewer systems generally show slope (or grade) in terms of fall per hundred feet. Slope is sometimes expressed as a percent rather than in inches per foot. A 1 percent slope means 1 foot of frill in a 100-foot length of pipe, or about 1/8 inch per foot. A 0.5 percent slope (6 inches in 100 feet is about 1/16 inch per foot.

Table 7-6 gives the minimum slope for some of the most commonly used pipe sizes. The slope should remain constant in the section between each manhole. Each section between successive manholes should be analyzed and the slope for that particular section determined. If the fall is relatively steep, the velocity of the flow is faster and a smaller pipe size may be used. If the slope is relatively flat, the velocity is slower and a larger pipe size may be used. In the larger pipe, the depth of flow may decrease to such extent that the velocity might be no greater than a smaller pipe