外文翻译--回到基本配管工程学概述.doc

Back to Basics: An Overview of Plumbing Engineering By John Swaffield Any overview must be personal. In this case, the perspective is based on 25 years of exposure to the whole gamut of plumbing issues from application of mathematical simulations to the efforts necessary to bring water supply to the less privileged areas of developing countries; from the investigation of venting problems in underground structures to the political and business issues inherent in the manner in which codes and regulations are specified. This perspective leads to caution in addressing the title “Back to Basics.” In the U.K., and probably other western democracies, this phrase represents the graveyard of many political aspirations. The first step in this overview therefore is to define “basics” and probably more importantly to determine what is not included under this heading. The fundamental requirement of a plumbing system, including both water supply and drainage, is that it does no harm. The public health imperative is supreme. This is often encapsulated within codes through an apparent obsession with such issues as back-siphonage. Drainage systems must carry away waste without posing a hazard to the user or providing any long term hazard within the areas through which the drainage system passes. Habitable space must be protected from the incursion of foul odor through the provision of venting systems. These requirements are basic and form, in the U.K. at least, the backbone of the Victorian drainage and vent systems installed from the 1880s and which became the precursor of similar systems within the developing Western world at that time. In the U.K. in the mid 19th century Chadwick and other social reformers introduced many of the urban water supply and drainage system techniques now taken for granted––effectively the Industrial Revolution spawned both the problem and the socially aware groups that would provide its solution. To these requirements must now also be added the need