I understand the reason for expansion fittings, but never really saw an install where I was thinking "They'd really be up a creek if they hadn't put that expansion coupling in." Now here's a dramatic example of what happens when you don't. Neat.

-John

Wow.

Is expansion/contraction really what caused that?? I never would have guessed that a lack of provision for expansion could result in something this dramatic.

Kinda makes me ponder the 250 feet or so of EMT I just ran the other day...oh wait, that was inside a heated building. *whew*


Shawn.

That must have been some long conduit run to expand/shrink what looks like 2 inches. Are you sure it is not from damage further down the conduit run?

There's a run of 3/4 galvanized that runs along a fenceline for about 1200 feet out where I work (For H2S monitors) In the cold, it's straight as an arrow, but once it gets above about 80F or so... It starts doing the wave... along the WHOLE run!

The coefficient of thermal expansion for steel is 0.00000645in/in/deg. Doesn't sound like much, but for a 100' piece of pipe, the difference between a -20F day and a 110F day is 1". Aluminum expands twice as much as steel. Concrete is practically identical to steel. (Convenient for rebar, eh?) BUT, if that concrete has expansion joints, and the steel doesn't...

PVC is far worse, as it has a much higher coefficient of expansion. A similar piece of RNC would have an appx 4.5" expansion/contraction.

look @ how bent up it is, i don't think an expansion fitting would of helped that