Optimized Diagnosis and Prognosis for Impingement Failure of PA and PE Piping Materials

Main Objective

Optimized diagnosis - find existing impingement damage at the earliest stage before it becomes failure critical in Polyethylene (PE) and Polyamide (PA) materials, conduct comprehensive comparison studies to identify the differences in micro-cracking mechanism between these two materials; Optimized prognosis - accurately predict the remaining strength and RUL of PE and PA components through mechanical modeling and experimental investigations.

Public Abstract

The United States has a golden opportunity to become a powerhouse in global energy markets, to truly achieve full energy independence and to use natural gas to power our economy. Pipeline infrastructure and its safety is critical for the recovering of U.S. economy and our standard of living. Statistics from U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) and Gas Technology Institute (GTI) show the decline in use of steel and cast iron piping materials is significant in recent years and the increase in pipeline system size is largely due to plastic pipe installations. However, failure inevitably occurs in plastic piping materials and impingement failure is caused by high localized stress concentration combined with defects and inclusions. Previous research efforts were mainly focusing on PE materials, and efficient and effective impingement damage diagnosis and prognosis of various types of new plastic piping materials still remain unaddressed and challenging. This research will fundamentally understand and characterize the failure modes and associated material behaviors for modern plastic piping materials. The optimized diagnosis and prognosis approaches will thoroughly investigate and compare the dominating PE materials (makes up nearly 97% of current plastic pipes) and the emerging PA pipes that can operate at much higher pressures and be installed using existing PE tools and techniques. If successful, this study can help to effectively maintain and improve the reliability of pipeline systems, and ultimately reduce the environmental consequences because of a pipeline catastrophic failure.

Quarterly Status Reports

1st Quarterly Report

CAAP14_Quarterly_Report_PE_PA_CU-ASU-Q1-2015-final.pdf (538,501 bytes) [View] [Download/Save...]

2nd Quarterly Report

CAAP14_Quarterly_Report_PE_PA_Q2_Final.pdf (408,423 bytes) [View] [Download/Save...]

3rd Quarterly Report

CAAP14_Quarterly_Report_PE_PA_CU-ASU-Q3-2015-final.pdf (1,517,226 bytes) [View] [Download/Save...]

5th Quarterly Report

CAAP14_Quarterly_Report_PE_PA_CU-ASU-Q5-2015-final.pdf (1,821,145 bytes) [View] [Download/Save...]