This study models 33 corroded pipe configurations under combined internal pressure and bending, establishing which flaws genuinely threaten a pipeline and which can be safely tolerated.
Key points:
- Across corrosion depths from 10% to 80% of the wall, depth proved the dominant factor, with the thinned section losing stiffness and buckling locally before the rest of the pipe gives way
- Internal pressure hurts rather than helps, with normalised bending capacity falling from 0.95 to 0.86 as pressure rises from 0 to 20 MPa, since hoop stress combines with bending stress to trigger earlier yielding at the flaw
- Defect length matters only up to a point, because collapse is governed by the weakest cross-section and stretching a flaw further along the pipe barely changes the outcome
This article was published in the WSSET affiliate journal, Future Cities and Environment. For more information on our affiliate journals visit: wsset.org/journals
Read the full paper here: https://cspub-fce-submission.org/index.php/fce/article/view/374