Experimental evidence for enhanced copper release from domestic copper plumbing under hydrodynamic control

Abstract

We present experimental results intended to analyze copperrelease from biotic and abiotic pipe surfaces, and its relation to flowparameters (Re 1027 to 11,618).For both abiotic and biotical surfaces, increasing the flow velocityaffected the time scale of the copper release but not necessarily the netamount of total copper incorporated into the bulk flow.For biotical conditions the total copper concentration in the bulk flowwas an order of magnitude higher than for abiotic surfaces (3.65 mg/L vs.0.32 mg/L). Similarly, higher flow velocities could enhance the presenceof higher size copper nanoparticles in the bulk flow.