Plastic Pipe Failure, Risk, and Threat Analysis

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• Risk Assessment
• Pipeline Materials
• Integrity Management

Main Objective

The primary objective of the proposed research is to determine the failure risks and threats to plastic gas pipes by conducting failure analyses including a root-cause analysis to identify defects that lead to failure initiation and growth and prioritizing the risks and threats using risk assessment techniques and to identify an inspection technology to mitigate plastic pipe failures, risks and threats.

Public Abstract

This project will identify the failure risks and threats to plastic gas pipes, address pipes susceptible to premature brittle cracking, perform a root-cause analysis to identify defects that lead to failure, prioritize the risks and threats, and using the results of root-cause analysis identify a technology to address and mitigate plastic pipe risks and threats.
To accomplish the objectives, GTI will perform several research tasks including:

• Conduct a literary search to determine all risks and threats to plastic gas pipes;
• Conduct surveys on plastic gas pipe field failure analyses to solicit and develop a broad data-base on type, cause, frequency, and severity;
• Perform a root-cause failure analysis on current plastic gas pipe field failures to identify types of defects/causes leading to crack initiation and growth and final failure;
• Address brittle-like Slow Crack Growth (SCG) failures over time in plastic pipes and fusion joints to forecast the remaining useful life expectancy and pressure-carrying capacity of plastic pipe materials and joints susceptible to premature brittle-like failures;
• Conduct a failure analysis using risk assessment methods to identify plastic pipe risks and threats and to rank these risks and threats using all the data generated in the above tasks;
• Using the findings of the root-cause and risk analysis, conduct a critical design review to determine what technology should be developed to inspect, verify and assess the identified types of critical defects in plastic gas pipes that may lead to risks and threats; and
• Identify a commercial partner for any possible future inspection technology development.

A Project Advisory Group selected from the gas industry and several organizations will guide the work, progress, results and recommendations.